ANALYSING THE ITV DOCUMENTRY, ‘MIRRORBALL’

For this section of analysis, I shall be exploring the ITV documentry of “Mirrorball” which is about looking at work by various music video directors during the late 19th century. I shall also be looking at some of the most professional examples of work by ‘Spike Jonze’ & ‘Jonas Alerlund’ in depth so I can further develop my knowledge and understanding of what the music video directors organisation entails.

The Documentry of ‘Mirrorball’ itself offers a auteur approach in which the central focus is based around the directors, rather than the band/artist or genre. This helps seperate it from all the other documentries. This defines houw music video directors are never recognised amonst the viewers and are never noticed for thei achievenemt, which often can cause some controversy.

Mirrorballs became significantly important due to it showing of several controversial music videos, which helped revolutionsise the critics of their overall perspective on how music videos should be portrayed. Then suddenly the audiences began to realise what was and wasnt acceptable within music videos, and then new limits of what should be viewws were provided and taken into consideration. However this did cause some issures with the censorshop and its authorities. Despite all this, Mirrorball has successfully managed to win its viewers by its use of modern socidety. A new lighting came upon music videos and it is now allowing new and more content to exsist.

Thoughtout this documentry it strongly explaines the process to the view how to construct a hight standard music video, by using the effectiviness of editing. As a part of the audience we can gain an insight of how the directors mind works and the creativity that happens behind the production stages. From this documentry I personally feel that the audience gains a good genral knowledge as we begin to understand how much technical skills and hard work is put into directing and constructing a successful music video.

SPIKE JONZE

After looking at Spike Jonze earlier on in the blog, I thought it would be a good idea to explore his carrer and achievements in more details.

“Spike Jonze (born Adam Spiegel; October 22, 1969) is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Charlie Kaufman, which include the 1999 film Being John Malkovich and the 2002 film Adaptation, and for his work as director of the 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are. He was also a co-creator and executive producer of MTV’s Jackass. He is currently the creative director of VBS.tv. He is also part owner of skateboard company Girl Skateboards with riders Rick Howard and Mike Carroll.”

These are some personal favorites music videos that he directed:

Weezer – Buddy Holly

The Happy Days inspired video that launched Spike Jonze into the public eye. Before this Spike had done a number of solid videos, but this was the one that got him on MTV and pushed him to scale the heights he has. There is no doubt that you know every second of this video by heart and remember the days of waiting for it to come on MTV every half hour. Simply put this may just be the best music video ever made.

Kanye West- Flashing Lights

“Flashing Lights”; In 2;46 seconds, Spike Jonze and Kanye West manage to captivate our attention with a beautiful woman, a beautiful scene, and some traumatic, unexplained violence. It makes for a video you cannot turn your eyes away from.

Fatboy Slim – Weapon of Choice

Fatboy Slim – “Weapon of Choice”; Speaking of odd dance choices, who thought Christopher Walken could move like that before seeing this video. Sure, some of the moves are done by stunt doubles, but this video is absolutely incredible almost solely for the performance Walken gives in it. When you consider his most recent film work this might just be the best thing he’s done in the last 15-years!

JONAS AKERLUND

As Jonas Akerlund is one of the key aspects of Mirrorball controvery. I am going to explore him further into his career, and able to understand how and why his musicn videos have become such a controversial with our society. Below is a summers that I have taken from Wikipedia.

“Jonas Åkerlund(born November 10, 1965) is a Swedish film and music video director, and drummer. He is best known for his stylish music videos, which are often mock forms of movie trailers and short films. His video for Madonna’s song “Ray of Light” won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form, and a record seven awards at 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, including the Video of the Year. He more recently directed the video for Britney Spears’ 2011 single “Hold It Against Me”.

These are some of my favorite music videos directed my Jonas Åkerlund:

Britney Spears – Hold it against me

This is a music video that he recently directed most recently, Britney Spears – Hold it against me. He has also directed Lady Gaga- Telephone which was recently too. The one things I’ve noticed that these both have in common is the extreme use of product placement. I think he has gone over the top with the amount of product brands that are being used to advertise in a 4 min clip.

The Prodigy- Smack my Bitch up

This video has been made banned due to inappropriate use of content.

Overall I found Mirrorball a fascinating source of information as I have explored further to understand music video directors individual styles and techniques , and I believe this will hugely contribute towards my final product. There are a range of fantastic ideas which I can take onboard. I have learnt about how music videos can change critcis perceptions due to shocking content and also how it can benefit a video directors career for the better because of sucessful editing and directing. I also discovered that I couldnt post music videos on Wordpress, as the embedded rights belong to youtube and also the artists record labels, so therefore links were directed back to youtube’s original website.

 

Michael Jackson Case Study

MICHAEL JACKSON

Michael Joseph Jackson was born in August 29th 1958 and died in June 2009. He was a very successful American recording artist, dancer, singer, song-writer, and musician. He was mainly known as the ‘King of Pop’ as he was mainly recognised as the best entertainer of all time. His passion for music, dance, and fashion made him a global figure in pop culture of the years. He was the 7th child of the Jackson family and therefore decided to create a professional music band along with his bothers. They called their debut The Jackson 5. Once they had become a massive successful singing band they decided to go their separate ways becoming solo artists in 1971.

Micheal Jackson has had some long and complex jouney’s throughout his career over the years. As Michael Jackson was first established in the Jackson  5 which became the central focus of the media music industry he eventually gave ‘breaking news’ t0 the media by his ambition of creating a solo career, meaning the Jackson 5 was going their separate ways creating their own music or accomplishing other future goals and options. Michael was able to develop himself into a global superstar due to his iconic image and trade mark sound. He managed to create ground breaking music through the use of music videos such as the famous  ‘Thriller’  and ‘Beat it’ these are the most famous music videos up-to-date meaning he has generated huge successes and his popularity increased dramatically with his music career quickly unfolding.

However all wasn’t so bright as during the 90’s Jackson career suddenly turned for the worst, transforming his unique star image to a freakish child-like nature. His abnormalities led to him becoming an object of a media frenzy, in his music career and personal life, tarnishing his iconic status in the process. From then on he became a massive down fall in his career, as he was seen in a different way to the population of the world.

In Jackson’s later years, allegations of child abuse were made against him, resulting into a series of court cases, which were never solved. Now that his death has suddenly occured, Michael Jackson once again became a media frenzy, generating sympathy and hatred amongst his critics. An album has been made in his rememberance of existence, which will be released in December.

From extracting this information I have learnt what a meta-narrative really entails, and how artists careers can vary due to their success with thei music but also their personal issues which have affected their life in the process, especially when it comes to the media, as a frenzy is normally made.

Learning how to study music videos (Pete Fraser) in MediaMagazinein ‘Media Magazine’

‘Thought Beats’ or seeing the sounds in your head.

• Synaesthesia is the basis of visualising images from a psychological process where an image is created in the mind from the use of sound.
• Its central to understand music videos as they build up the soundtrack’s visual associations in order to connect with the audiecne and provide additional pleasure.
• Using the approach its important to start with the music, understanding the way the music works. Taking into account that the song has been merged with other sounds and techniques.
• Lyrics within the song do not need to be analysed word for word like a poem, its mainly applied by the way they introduce the mood and general emotions.
• Its rare to have coherent meaning in songs
• Key phrases and lines are mainly found in the chorus will have a big part to play in the song.

Roland Barthes’ theory of the ‘grain of voice’ is relevant with the signers identity as the singer’s voice is known as a more expressive instrument, with a more personal and unique to the singer, like a fingerprint and therefore able to create associations in itself. The voice of a song may even establish trademarks.

• If songs want to tell stories then the singer is the storyteller where this makes the music videos stand out on worldwide television channels like MTV.
• Goodwin compared pop singers to stand up comics in the way the artist uses personal trademarks or signature that may dominate the overall performance.
• The music is arranged in the song as it might include instruments, mixed effects and may include various samples that generally work with the lyrics and grain of the voice. This helps the us (the audience) to analyse the key sounds like the change of tempo within the sound and the structural meaning of the verses and choruses
• The visualisation of the videos might become more personal to some people and therefore will receive different responses from certain individuals. For example the strong link to past memories and images of your own life will help set a template of the music video creativity.

Narrative and Performance

• Some songs don’t always tell the complete narrative so they have been study with visual texts.
• The narrative in the song affects the way the stories are used in music video representation of a songs meaning. Therefore we often get a hint of the drama unfolding
• Music videos should avoid a classic realist narrative as it can been seen as their role in advertising.
• Music videos have repeatability built into them.
• Sometime the videos will be cut between the narrative and the performance of the song by the artist/band.
• Careful choreographed dance might be added as it can be a big part of the artist performance or an extra aspect of visualisation and repeatability factor.
• The artist can be apart of the story for example acting as a narrator.
• Lip sync close up and mimed playing of the instrument that remains at the heart of the music video.

This is one of the most well known best choreographed dance routines that has been designed creatively that has considered simplicity.

OK Go – Here It Goes Again (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA)

The Star Image!

In the music industry it souly relies on big names to fund any activities that are being organised to take place. This usually fails to connect with the popular audiences as only 1 in 10 acts are put out by the music business actually managed to make money being successful. Therefore the meta-narrative of the star image will have the important part to play in a role of a music video production process. Meta-narrative is a technical term that describes the development of a star image over time, the stories that surround a particular artist.

For example Michael Jackson is a star icon over the decades. He started off as a small group with his brothers and then developed a solo career. His appearance and his personal life made me a successful star icon that is well known all over the world. I have done a little case study on Michael Jackson for my previous post.

Three ways in which music videos relate visuals to the song.

We can identify three ways in which music videos work to support or promote the song.  These are illustration, amplification and disjuncture and I find them extremely useful in attempting to generalize the effects of individual music videos.

• Illustration – An illustration is displayed visualization form presented in a graphical way that helps create a elucidate or dictate sensual piece of information. Therefore within music videos they can illustrate the meaning of their lyrics and genre with the use of graphic imagery, that can also make the whole visual appear much more entertaining and enjoyable viewing.

This is a music video of the band Coldplay and their song strawberry swing. This is a music video that from first glace immediately interests me and grabs my attention due to the creativity that has been used. The colours and studio set out is really good as it has a strong narrative with the use of graphic imagery. The Illustrations in this example are used continuously throughout the piece. All the objects are hand drawn carefully with a clever actor that uses special positions to give the illustration of it being 3 dimensional.
Link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb9X5jMofEo 

• Amplification is seen as the mark of true music videos Auteur, director of the artist is becoming an increasingly common way to view music videos creatives. (VH1s Best 100 videos clearly placed Spike Jonze in the Auteur catergory as his work is always amplifying the original songs meanings and adding a ‘surreal’ sense of humour). This technique that Spoke Jonze used created a division from disjuncture and amplification. Due to amplification consists a link with a song to enhance & develop ideas rather than completely changing them.
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Here is one of Spike Jonze’s music videos; ‘ISLAND IN THE SUN- WEEZER’ which helps capture the more lighter side of surreal humour, through a happy and emotional connection between humans and animals.Here is a video of one of Spike Jonze’s music videos. Its called the ‘Island on the sun – by Weezer’. This music video helps capture light with a good sense of humour, with the use of happy and emotion connection between people (humans) and animal creatures that don’t really bond with our species. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C3zgYW_FAM&ob=av2e

• Disjuncture is known as a technical term that describes how music videos ignore the original song and create a whole new set of meaning that basically takes out the relevance out of the lyrics and meanings in the song. This is a very radical approach used by arty bands to show their originality and uniqueness as an individual.  These types of music videos dont really make much sense due to the heavy use of abstract imagery.
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This is one of the funniest and most creative music videos I’ve seen in a long time. Their music videos strongly relies on the use of props to add their humour. Each shot contains a bright contrasting prop in every shot. Red hot chili peppers have been really imaginative and creating throughout this music video to keep the audience amused.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Cant Stop (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfOdWSiyWoc)

  Technical aspects of music video

The last really essential aspect of the music video is to study the technical. This includes camerawork, movement and angle, mise-en-scene, editing and sound. It is important to remember that the more general features of music videos already mentioned when trying to work out the technical effects, especially those that are postproduction effects. Broadly, the technical conventions can be summed up as follows:

1. Speed – Speed is visualized by camera movement, fast editing (montage) and digital effects.
   • Camera Movement is often motivated by running, dancing and walking performers.
   •  Fast Cutting and montage editing creates a visually decentred experience necessary for music video consumption, with the images occasionally moving so fast that they are impossible to understand on first viewing and thus need to be viewed several times (repeatability)
   •  Post Production digital effects – a staple of music video where images can be colourised, multi split screens appear and son on, to complicate and intruge, providing pleasure again and again.  Not all camera movement is about speed though, some use slow pace through dissolves or static shots. This kind of editing – like Sinead O’Connor’s  ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’  – is striking and effective is setting the song apart from the hustle and bustle of most pop activity.
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2. Meat – The meat of most music videos is the cut to the close up of the singers face. This is because the voice is seen as the most important part of the pop video.
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   This is a screen shot taken from Rihanna’s new song ‘California King Bed’. As this song is really slow and emotional, from this close up it represents her emotions. Also throughout this music video close ups are only focused on Rihanna as she is the centered main focus
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   RIHANNA – California King Bed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhBorPm6JjQ)
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3. Beats – Often, the video will try and represent the music through the use of the cut to go with the beat or the key rhythm.
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4. Lighting and Colour is used mainly to emphasise the key moments in the songs lyrics. With the use of lighting in live performances or just lighting that has been specially edited create a dramatic effect to the overall visual appeal. Colour may be used to show the development of the song, going from black and white vice versa with the main chorus kicks in. Sometime change in the mise en scene or camera work often signal the same type of thing.
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   This music video is from OWL CITY – Vanilla Twilight. Its ironic to see that the title of the song is Twilight as the music video has a lot of edited artificial lighting. This is a screen shot of a scene on the video. The main singer is playing his piano when light beams are shining directly at the camera. The light beams are supposedly meant to be from a lighthouse that was displayed on the first shot of the song.
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   OWL CITY- Vanilla Twilight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIz2K3ArrWk)
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5. Mise-en-scene – As we know the setting for every music video is extremely important as it guarantee’s the authenticity of the clip rather than anything. Mise en scene can be filmed in a concert hall or a rehearsal room to emphasise the realness of the performances. Computer generated imagery (CGI) is commonly used, mainly for dance genres which don’t need to reply on being ‘Real’.

ADVERTS OR ART

From the research above I have emphasised how complex music videos actually are, looking into depth how they have been thought and designed out. I’ll be now looking at what people think of art or adverts? Music videos our days tend to use soft porn to attract their audiences. Laura Mulvey looked at the female fragmented body parts to attract the male gaze. Do artists/bands give the message of romance in a genuine positive way or is it for spiritual experience of star worship? However music videos can be a great way of extending the song by adding creative ideas and pleasure on top of the primary wonders of popular music. Then end results concludes to the success of the all the different media together, along with the increasing influence on the internet, that makes popular music.

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Overall I feel I have used this article effectively to develop my knowledge about the music industry and how music videos have been produced and constructed. Also finding out new technical terms I have managed to understood what they mean by detailed definitions and how and when you would use this technical language. Therefore this article was extremely helpful and is highly beneficial in satifying their audiences. 

Suzy Davis – Interview from Media Magazine.

EDITING MUSIC PROMOS.

From the start of Alevel media studies to the Final cut, Suzy Davis has become a very successful well earned music editor due to her hard work and ambition. Therefore its a pleasure to explore her journey to get where she is now. She is well known for her famous work with artist such as Dizzee Rascle, The Streets, Will Young, Benny Benassi which has all got amazing music videos that is well known. Below I have analysed some of the questions that were asked during the interview..

HOW DID YOU GET FROM BEING AN A LEVEL MEDIA STUDENT TO BEING A MUSIC PROMO EDITOR?

After Suzy did her A levels, she went to a Reading University to do a course in languages which she chose to study Italian along with Film Studies. This is when she became to learn the impact of sound quality, editing, mise en scene, etc which she could analyse and pick up certain aspects of a film. The course that she was doing where more theoretical rather than practical however this didn’t become an issue as she was taught to become an editor working her way up to the Final Cut from runner to assistant editor over the years (roughly 9 years). After she had completed university she decided to hand out hundred of CV’s out begging to some sort of work experience that she could gain to benefit her dream career. She eventually found herself in production at LWT for a while then finally in post production where she identified her true interest. Her 9 year apprenticeship at ‘final Cut’ began as a runner up for 2 years and an editor for 3-4 years. Within these year Suzy had learnt the main aspects for the job that includes quoting, invoicing and cutting. She eventually started her very own business after 4 years. This shows that Suzy finally had the chance of becoming an editor when she presented a music video to her boss which she had made for the band “The 80s matchbox B-Line Disaster”

WHAT WAS YOUR ‘BREAKTHROUGH’ MUSIC PROMO EDITING JOB?

Suzy Davis first breakthrough was when she made a clever decision to partner up with a new director called Dougal Wilson in 2003 for the dance outfit called Benny Benassi. This new Benny Benassi music video called Satisfaction featured women in a revealing bikini wielding with large power tools, which made the video appear more ironic with a good sense of humour. This was a very ‘cheesy’ dance video that was nominated at the CADS awards for the ‘Best editing in a video’. This was a massive achievement for Davis as it was only her first year of being an editor, so she founded herself propend into the world of promo cutting and then managed to quickly build up a name for herself, producing 36 promos  videos in total. For the satisfaction video there was hardly any planning or storyboard, it was just some outrageous footage and an appealing introduction which made it very funny showing her creative flair and freedom.

DESCRIBE A TYPICAL JOB WORKING ON A PROMO AS AN EDITOR?

An average day for a promo editor would begin with reasonable hours, then a selection process for a music video would normally take up a whole day, including the rushes. Then Suzy will tend to strengthen a good performance before she would add the narrative elements as the second layer once she is completely satisfied. With the help of the director on the second day they will work together as a team to get all the shots in different places and sometime re structure the edit to improve it in any way possible. She will always find herself cutting and changing takes as the works takes on, ending up with the heavy effects work building scenes from the use of a green screen and matting people and object into the scene. This is what happen to the Will Young’s head onto Simon Grooms Body! Once all the necessary changes and improvements have been completed, finalisation is normally concluded on the third day as the promo cut is presented to the artist and the record company. This is where any final changes can be made to everything can work smoothly, fitting perfectly together. The biggest and hardest part of the job is trying to please all parties and departments that are involved with the project. The worst thing that Suzy has came across is letting someone take the DVD home and the next thing she knows she is getting a phone call to say the wife doesn’t like parts of the videos and demands her to change it. This is not always the case and some artists are very good and trustworthy for example Will Young is a very intelligent man when it comes to his videos.

HOW REGULAR IS WORK AS AN EDITOR?

Davis generally will ‘feed off’ the Final Cut bookings which helps her create work for herself. When working with five director who always cut with her, its important to maintain a really good relationship with them as it will help sustain a constant work load and keep the environment workable and manageable. Suzy has done about nice promos with Dougal Wilson as he has helped produce videos during the development over time.

IS THE PAY ENOUGH TO LIVE ON?

I would say that jut cutting soley music videos would not be much of an income. To give an example, last year I cut a big budget Will Young Promo (£150,000). For the amount set aside for editing (which took fourteen days as it was an extremely effects heavy job!) Was just £2500. This my sound ok but when you consider Final Cut takes 50% that leaves me £1250 before tax for half a months work for a top end video! The average video will take about 4 days and have between £500 to £1000 to complete edit costs divided between the house and the editor. In order for Final Cut to run to the high standard it does, the main work we do here involves high end commercials which can be very lucrative. In the past year I have found myself working on 95% commercials and 5% promos in order to meet the targets that are required to run my suite, my assistant and all production costs.

Because of the state of music video budgets, young editors often use promo cutting as a pathway to a decent show reel as this genre allows a great deal of creative freedom. I guess that to make a decent living from promo editing you would need to build up a name as a freelance editor so that any work you did get would be paid in full. There are of course pros and cons of being freelance.

HOW MUCH CREATIVE FREEDOM DO YOU GET?

The amount of creativity varies depending on the job, something she is told to ‘ignore the storyboard and do whatever she thinks’ allowing her imagination to overload, allowing her to work by herself for 3 days. Whereas other times the director will always be over her shoulder making sure he is restricted and doing everything she is told and checking things are running smoothly to plan. In other situations Suzy tends to edit think on her own and present them when the job progresses further. Suzy explains that the director employs you for vision, creativity input as a journey of the edit can be fascinating to experience.

WHAT DIFFERENCE IS THERE FOR YOU IN EDITING PROMOS TO OTHER KINDS OF JOBS SUCH AS ADS, TRAILERS ETC ?

My work in commercials can be far more intensive than that which I do in music videos, often purely because of schedule. I will have for example five days to edit 60 seconds of commercial but only three days to edit a three and a half minute promo. The approval process for commercials can drag for weeks with many layers of the ad agency and finally the client wanting to give their input. So patience is the key here (or having a great assistant that you can palm a dragging job off onto). In general I gain a lot more instant job satisfaction from cutting a promo than going over thirty takes of a guy eating a mars bar in the right way.

HAVE YOU EVER EDITED SOMETHING THAT HAS THE NOT BEEN USED?

Davis explains that it does happen time to time. She was allowed to cut a really interesting one for the Dogs, which the band loved but the record company objected due the shocking inappropriate nature.

WHATS YOUR FAVOURITE KIND OF JOB?

I really like to do rock performances with a real rough and ready feel. Sometimes you can cut quickly which gives you the chance to go with the flow and let your hair down. I made three like that for Queen Andreena which I really enjoyed.

I also enjoy something with a technical challenge though. I think that it shows in something like Will Young’s ‘Who am I?’ We had to go through the fifty hours of old Blue Peter footage, classic moments and son on then do lots of work on individual frames painstakingly painting his face onto the original presenters.

Once the scenes were edited into a rough order, Will Young filmed his performance over two days in a recreation of the Blue Peter studio. Each shot required matching the angle and lighting of the original footage using either white or green screen. The studio scenes were filmed on video while all the exteriors were shot on 16mm resulting in slightly grainy images that allow him to be seamlessly blended into the scenes. The streets video was a major job too, really comprising of four jobs in one, the first layer comprised of all the feet walking along and all the edges of the frames in lots of different environments, matching up street, park, pub and so on. The second involved all the hands turning the photos on green screen. This all had to be very heavily storyboarded to know when each change was coming and to get the timing right. The third involved the narrative element with wider shots and performance and the fourth layer had the photographs in place with the freeze frames of the digi beta footage. It was a very complex job. When the record company saw it in the early stages they thought it looked a mess and couldn’t see how the whole thing would happen from the photos. But they allowed Dougal to go online and build it up and we were all very pleased with the results.

WHICH OF YOUR VIDEOS ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?

Her most priced and proud video was Satisfaction because she did some amazing pieces of editing that she picked up from A level and it has become an iconic piece of work. This wasn’t the only video that she was greatly proud of; Suzy also liked the one she did for the band ‘Chikini’ ‘Assassinator 13’. This was completely opposite to Benny Benassi in that they knew in advanced exactly what to do with a cut on every single beat, signifying the much organised and well planned nature.

In each verse and chorus played a ‘mathematical formula’ was produced, for shooting woth the four band member and four beats to the bar, four guitars. She believed she had enough permutations to get it to work and then overlapped these aspects with the melody on top of the bead isolated some other stiff which were timed. Experimentation began with ordered shots until a correct pattern was assembled; this has lead to a huge amount of fun in editing.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO STUDENTS EDITING THEIR OWN VIDEOS?

As I am a media student myself I will definitely been using Suzy Davis advice that she has said during this interview. As she clearly stated that you should avoid complicated narratives, and simply think about the use of lighting to create effective effect in the camera. If the shots taken don’t look as good as you imagined there are tricks you can use that professional editors have to resolve the image, for example colour grading tools which can be applied to every shot taken or the use of flash frames, linking 2 boring shots and flipping them upside down to help avoid visual boredom. All these little things can be solved by special software that can make any video more appealing.

In conclusion I think this interview as a source of information was extremely inspiring and useful due to the fact it allowed me to gain direct insight into the way a normal media student transformed into an well known respected media editor. This made me realised that anyone’s dreams can come true if they work hard enough for it and aim high. Ive learnt and understood the style, work and determination that are put into editing music videos, and will help prepare me for when I edit my own music video. I have also learnt that who you work with can have a big effect on the final result due to the fact there could be clashing opinions and tense moments in editing. I have learnt some professional advice from Suzy Davis, and will be sure to take that into consideration when making my music video. On the whole the more experience someone has, the better they will get at it and the more success they achieve.

Distraction Factory

Cultural critics have viewed music videos in a variety of different ways, which reflects how diverse and problematic they can be to define as an art-form or media text:

• Mercer looks at them as a kind of cinematic genre
•  Fry and Fry view them in terms of adverts
• Fiske as a new form of television as classic postmodern texts
• Walker sees them as visual art
• Lewis sees them merely in terms of shopping mall culture
• Marcus views them as semiotic pornography

Dancing in the Distraction factory explains how hard it is to define what a music video is, and how criticism is leveled against them. It may be easy to argue against the compelling argument to establish a balanced argument. This is what MTV has done and got blamed for the modern society short attention spam and obsessions with imagery. However MTV have enabled black artists such as Michael Jackson to become a global sensation and without MTV he would be the media phenomenon is has become. This shows that this global channel is the most recognisable music channel providing increasing popularity.

In the book it describes how Madonna cleverly set about turning herself into a successful style icon from the use of her music videos in a marketable product by creating a star persona. Meta-narrative describes how this collection of promo videos that an artist such as Madonna releases builds up a kind of story and develop an artist or person.  Again Madonna’s transformation from sex symbol to role model of female empowerment or Michael Jackson’s rise and fall artist and (Black man).

Dancing in the Distraction factory is a very useful secondary source of information which shows that it is very beneficial for media students, like myself that are greatly interested in working within the music video industry. The textbook explores various different perspectives that have very detailed case studies within them of particular artists and promo videos that feature a video timeline dating from the 1921. However the Distraction Factory has shown to have a limited degree level to media students, as it can often become hard to follow. It mainly focuses on music television rather than focusing on the technical side of production and construction of music videos. This is helpful to establish important background information but this is not always helpful in terms of inspiration to help product creative ideas.

Overall from learning and reading this textbook I found it very helpful as I now know how to explore balanced arguments about how music videos are judged. Therefore this knowledge and understanding can be extremely useful when it comes to addressing the target audience for my music video that I will eventually create. It has also helped me explore other artists who have been established over the years by Meta-narrative’s success. Learning in dept how people can promote their selves in different ways to create success and wealth.

The Making of MTV

Over time MTV has successfully become the most popular TV channel of all time reaching 400 millions householders in the 166 countries via 42 different channels. Therefore these sasisitics indicate that MTV is a well known global television brand. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs.

MTV was established by an organisation of enthusiasts called Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company (WASEC) , which was know to be a joint cable venture between Warner Communications and the American Express. One inspiration that was mention for the channel was from Mike Nesmith who is a former band member of the 1960’s band called ‘The Monkees’. He had been pioneering pop videos for his solo recording and for other artists. People decided to approach Nesmith and asked him to make a test version of MTV, which was shown on children television channel Nickelodeon.

Although viewers were receptive to the idea, Nesmith eventually decided that he did not want to be involved in a ‘channel full of commercials for records’. But Lack was convinced that music television had a future. He managed to persuade Wasec’s conservative owners that, as record companies usually provided promotional videos free, the channel would be cheap to run. Then he surrounded himself with like minded people, including Tom Freston, now chairman of MTV networks, who was hired as the channel’s regional marketing director.

Freston began to with the music industry trade of journal ‘billboard’, when he suddenly came across an article about an ”unamed music channel’ that was searching for enthusiastic people, therefore he applied as soon as possible. The final idea of one of his biggest ideas was selling the idea to other cable operators, who were enigineers into sports and were off by the idea of a rock/pop music TV channel. Even record commpanies did not like the sound of the idea at first due to naturally being cautious about providing free content.

Freston knew from the start of creating MTV it would succeed if it was published. As TV never really had brands as before people just tended to watch programme’s rather than channels as it appeared to be more entertaining. With the format of the radio, with videos playing the role of records. The had managed to create a sense of cohesion so that the audience would identify the channel and stay with it.

Edgy and raw

Identity/Appearance

The most important aspect in any business is to have an successful logo that people can instantly recognize. The MTV’s logo is simply a large block letter “M” in graffiti style lettering that has been designed purposely to look raw and edgy on the wall. The words “music television” underneath suddenly became ubiquitous and instantly reconisable in popular culture. Over the last 3 decades MTV’s design have brought some changes and evolution to the iconic image and branding.

The logo was first released on 1st August 1981 which established the opening moment of the channel which featured a domumentry footage of Neil Armstrong planting an MTV flag on the moon. The first ever music video that was identified and shown was called ‘Video killed the radio star’ by The Buggles, which became the famous landmark in TV history. MTV Europe went on air six years later marking the beginning of the brands long evolution US product into 42 individual channels that have become available all over the world in a short space of time. The president and chief executive of MTV networks Europe ‘Brett Hansen’ admitted that it was extremely hard to understand the diverse range of the pan-European audience.  The channel was mainly aimed at the younger generation of people with mobility rather than a certain nation, so it had to maintain an ‘international flavor’. However there was one problem with this, is that it would occasionally end up with an Scandinavian blonde talking about Italian music in English to a German audience, so there would be a confusion of the language and culture. Even then MTV knew that this would need to be resolved by making it regionalized.

The next aim for MTV Europe was to be able to build an European Distribution which will be able to provide revenue for the more advanced regionalisation, whilst also finding a way to help create an advertising base. This would help spead the word that MTV has now become global for all the European audiences. From the support of the broadcaster, they made events for local artists to help familiarise certain viewers with their culture, creating MTV Europe Awards in the process.

Youth Lifestyle Entertainment

MTV has been evolving over the years since its birth in the early 1980’s and continues to adapt itself to the technology demanding world by using a multiple of platforms. Another current mission MTV strives to achieve is a wider range of entertainment on a number or platforms other than just TV, including online entertainment and also mobile phones – this mission is called ‘ The 360 degree MTV experience’.

As mobile phone use becomes increasingly popular with viewers, MTV has developed ways in which their viewers can interact with them by allowing viewers to submit votes for their favourite artists. This connection between the audience and the producers is vital for understanding what the audience want to see, and how they can stay entertained. Of course traditional medium remain as vital as ever as MTV release branded books, CD’s and DVD’s regularly.

In additon, digital technology is enabling the company to target even smaller audience niches. While it continues to regionalize, it has also begun to home in on pop cultures disparate tribes, launching specialist dance, rock and rap channels. Bill Roedy says ‘In the UK alone we have nine channels, and there is no reason why we shouldn’t continue to expand. Digital allows you to reach a specific demographic groups’

Censorship on MTV

MTV has edited a number of music videos to remove references to drugs, sex, violence, weapons, racism, homophobia, or advertising. Many music videos aired on the channel were censored, moved to late-night rotation, or banned entirely from the channel.

In the 1980s, parent-media watchdog groups such as the Parents Music Resource Center criticized MTV over certain music videos that were claimed to have explicit imagery of satanism. MTV has developed a strict policy on refusal to air videos that may depict devil worship or anti-religious themes. This policy led MTV to ban music videos such as “Jesus Christ Pose” by Soundgarden in 1991 and “Megalomaniac” by Incubus in 2004.

Certification and Classification

This is the BBFC Logo with all the certificates and classifications listed.

The British Board of Film classification (BBFC)

is an massive well known organisation who gives classification certificates to practically every media from available before the media is published to the public view. This is a very good things that the government is going as a restriction can protect certain people (mainly young children) from shocking inappropriate imagery in some content. However some people might see a restriction as a deary and fun idea to see what they are missing out on, however not everything can be prevented internally. If a type of video is unsuitable for a mislead target age group then it can immediately destroy the artists reputation in seconds.

With the ability to have a Certificate and Classification it will disallow specific and certain content from a music video and only release it on certain channels in specific hours of the day. This is not a good thing for the artist/band as it could reduce the revenue but it is a reason why many artists should avoid inappropriate content if they don’t want to make a loss on profits and decrease in popularity.

Examples:

 Here is a video that I tried to search for on “YouTube” but wasn’t allowed to view the music video by Rihanna due to some content material being inappropriate. This is a good example of ‘YouTube’ using restrictions so people under the age of 18 cannot view the video without difficulty.

Below is an article that I found explaining why here music video was banned from certain users……

“Rihanna has never shied away from being sexy in her videos, but it seems she’s gone too far for some with her colorful video and lyrics for “S&M.” Not only has the video been deemed “inappropriate for some users” by YouTube, where viewers must verify they are 18 or older before watching it, but a handful of radio stations are also reacting to the song’s racy lyrics.

In the video — while singing lyrics like “Sex in the air/ I don’t care/ I love the smell of it/ Sticks and stones may break my bones/ But chains and whips excite me” — she dances around in latex, poking fun at the ball-gag-wearing media. The clip includes whips, a dog-leashed Perez Hilton and Rihanna being handled by the press.

According to the U.K.’s Daily Mirror, 11 countries have already banned the video from airplay, and BBC 1 Radio won’t play the track before 7 p.m. A rep for the radio station said they are considering airplay for the Loud track: “We are waiting for an edited version before deciding whether it will be played in the daytime.”

As for rumors that MTV was looking to re-edit the clip, reps for the network told MTV News that the Melina Matsoukas-directed video was approved as is.

The singer herself is responding to the reaction and YouTube’s decision to include a parental warning on the video, tweeting, “U can now view the S&M video on Rihannanow.com UNFLAGGED!!!” Also tweeting, “They watched Umbrella … I was full nude.””

What are your feelings about the soft porn used in the music videos today?

In my opinion I don’t like the use of woman figures in nearly music videos that exists. I don’t fully understand why swear words are blocked in the lyrics but it’s ok to have half naked woman creating sexual pleasures in a music video, when children are the biggest target audience in the music industry. I don’t think its right to have children sexually aroused when viewing a video at a early age. But blocking swears words are going to help?

There is porn music videos being created that are actually getting published over the internet for anyone to watch. When I first saw this video I was shocked and disgusted how a famous celebrity thought it was normal to create a vile porn video to advertise the new release. Luckily the BBFC have band this video from being published on YouTube after thousands of complaints.

I strongly and passionately believe it’s wrong to have naked woman in videos on MTV and think something should be done about it. I think that artists should think how they can direct the lyrics in a different artist way to get their point across. Having music those children can watch so they can learn from right and wrong. Like crime, gangsters and self harm is all wrong and should happen in this world. Instead of having artists like Dizzy Rascal who is a stereotypical view of a gangster by the use of his appearance and style of music genre.

Overall in this sections I found found out how important it is to think carefully about the inappropriate content I use to target my audience. Therefore when creating and planning my music video I will make sure im extra aware of how I use the actors actions and lyrics with the use of existing classification regulations. I’ve also learnt how not having some sort of protections of the content can be dangerous to the audience and the repetition of the artist and whole production team.

Sound and Vision

For some secondary source of information Ive decided to use the textbook ‘Sound & Vision: A Music Video Reader’ edited by Simon Frith, which is a book that is specifically designed for Degree level media students.

Commodification – Refers to the way that music have a reason behind the productions stages and its not just produced for its own sake. This is because people want to make music, but a product or service that can be packaged and sold by others.

Textual ‘schizophrenia’  –  Defines the type of style in which music videos may appear to have an artisitc creative mode in them. By the way the music jump from one idea or image to the next. With this type of method it will making it more attractive and interesting to watch.

Postmodern approach: This means music videos that have been specifically merged with media connection between ‘high art’ and ‘popular cultrue’. For example the way they might borrow other cultural trends like fashion and musical style and combine them both to become a postmodern approach.

Postmodern disappearance of reality – people can grow wings or turn into cartoons or whatever – as long as they look cool, that’s all that matters…

Erosion of authenticity: 

Lawrence Grossberg tends to use the phrase “the ideology of authenticity”.  The music is basically considered as authentic when people are actually physically playing instruments or singing in a live stadium. However in music videos this is not the case as the artists are just performers, lip-syncing to their songs that they sometimes claim to write or miming along to the pre-recorded music. Therefore are a viewer, we know that the musicians are not actually performing but we go along with this so called inauthentic authenticity because sometimes we get too caught up getting concerned with the visual spectacle of the video, rather than looking into depth to notice if its ‘real’?

Is music video’s killing and destroying the rock culture?

In the music video industry they are not killing the rock culture as some critics suggest. However it is changing in some ways in that the audience will relate to the music, as the music is less significant that it was a few years ago. Music videos are know made in an ‘image’ which is today is just as important than the experience of music itself. This is a really bad thing as it is not fair for the artists who have a ‘poor’ image for example ‘Fat, Ugly, Spotty, etc?. This is a big disadvantage as people should enjoy the sound of music that worrying and judging the artists by their appearance.

Are music videos criticized due the limit of imaginations and freedom?

The answer is YES, they are criticized becuase the limit of imagination of the fans are taking away the listener’s freedom to interpret a song how they want it, by imposing too much visual or even narrative interpretation of the song upon them

Overall I have widen my knowledge of how people look at music videos. For example Lawrence Grossberg has inspired me in the way people  perceive the authenity of music videos and how the authenity can hugely have an impact of the music. I’ve also widen the idea of how the shots are jumped from one to another to make it appear more attractive and creative. Which is called Textual ‘schizophrenia’, so when planning my music video I shall be taking these techniques & methods into consideration.

Conventions of a Media Video

When it came to planning in this section we first started off creating a brain storm spider diagram of the different types of conventions there are in music videos up-to-date. The spider diagram includes all the most important technical conventions that we must consider when researching how music videos are constructed.

Music videos are very hard to describe due to there being so many conventions to produce high standards. Music videos tend to have diverse range of shots and camera angles but mainly will be the use of closes ups on the artist or band performing. Producers often use a feature or a montage effect which compiles short clips together, to help jump from one image to the other. In the modern day more and more music videos tend to be fast paced with quick edits enabling the clips to flow more smoothly. Post production effects are also key features of an effective music video. Throughout time producers label the title of the song, artist and album at the start or end of the video. This helps promote either the song, record label or the band itself thus generating more fans in the process to help establish recognition. Vibrant and bold images are vital, as it uplifts the quality of the song as the storyline merges together, making the song appear more realistic and attractive to the viewer’s eye.

Camera Shots:

Music videos tend to include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Also, close ups are used not only to show emotion but to reflect the words of the song with movement of the lips on the artist.

Camera movement:

The movement of the camera is used to follow and trace the artist or band. Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.

Mise-en-scene:

This refers to the arrangement of performers and props on the stage or in a scene puts more importance on the representation of something. An example is, ‘Mad’ by Neyo. The mise en scene involves him walking down a road alone, being in an isolated room. This reflects the isolation from his lover. Also, the props include hard and dark clothes which represent his mood of the song. Similar, the lighting is kept very dark as it is black and white; this connotes the angry and depressed mood.

Other main conventions consist of:

Lighting

Some music videos are black and white which help emphasis a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which put the artist in an enhanced look.

Sound

Sound is mainly the vocals or the song but in some cases such as Michael Jackson – Thriller, the producers make the music video into a short film.

Props

There are a vital in aiding to add to the scene and create significance on particular objects or people.

Costume:

This goes with the scenes in the song and reflects the genre. Costume is an important factor because it has a slight influence on how the views will dress because they use some of the celebrities as role models

Colour:

Colours tend to set the mood of the song through creating an atmosphere. For example dark colours are used more in rock songs such as kings of Leon and bright colours are seen to be more in hip hop pop videos.

Music conventions in Indie/Rock

• Tends to be black and white
• The artist/band is shown throughout the video
• Use of extreme close ups and long shots
• Dark locations
• Face paces
• Some use of special effects

Music conventions of Hip hop

• Locations tends to be party, club fancy location
• use of alcohol
• Recognised brands and clothing
• Expensive cars and houses
• Camera shots tend to be long and establishing to show the money involved. Close ups to show the jewellery and assets of the artist.
• Attractive women
• Does not follow a storyline, only follows genre.

Music conventions of POP

• Bright and colourful
• Close ups to show cheerful and upbeat emotions
• Extreme close ups– these tend to show the purity and innocence’s into the personality of the artist.
• Aims at teenage audience
• Very upbeat

Extracting information from “Wikipedia”

For my research and planning I have used some information from “Wikipedia” to expand my knowledge of this project and produce work to the best of my ability.

Used Wikipedia for:

• Definitions
• Examples
• Artist Research (DOB, Career, History etc)
• etc

Here is a definition of what a music videos is know as founded in Wikipedia:

“A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 80s, these works were described by various terms including “illustrated song“, “filmed insert”, “promotional (promo) film”, “promotional clip” or “film clip”.

Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. Many music videos do not interpret images from the song’s lyrics, making it less literal than expected.”

My knowledge of what a music video is?

• Music videos are very difficult to define because they are so varied in style, form and content
• Basically music videos are glorified adverts and their primary purpose is to buy released single, however some music videos are technically in native and visually amazing.
• Media Critic disagrees on the best way of viewing music videos.
• Views as trivial pornography
• Videos are also critized for creating a huge gap between fans, artist, and for turning music into another product (connodification).
• Music videos are another way of postmodern media from as they place style over substance, because they borrow heavily from other media forms & uses a lot of intertexual references to other texts e.g. Budi ~Holly-Weezer.
• Music videos are very varied but usually feature a performance, narrative.
• They also tend to be edited to enhance the beat and structure of the song.
• Music videos are also critised for taking away the listeners individual freedom to the song and picture is in their own way.

Introduction

For my Media Studies A2 coursework, I have chosen to take on the challenge of music promotion. The OCR brief asks me to produce:

A music video and two from these three:

· Home page for the band
· DVD cover
· Magazine ad for the DVD.

Therefore my research will be based on the medium of music video; through this I will gain a better understanding of how to produce my own music video, and an insight into the forms and conventions within them. My aims and objectives for producing a quality media product throughout this project are clear, by challenging the forms and conventions of real music videos I will be able to produce my own using the knowledge gained through this research.