Prelim music video planning and performance photos

Music video analysis-The pretender



Below is my analysis of "The Pretender" music video by the "Foo fighters". First I have a written analysis and then their is a powerpoint explaining the basics. Look below to watch the full video of "The Pretender".

This music video is a very good example to young band members that even the simplest of ideas can turn into a very good music video. This is because The "Foo fighters" use some very basic ideas to help keep the video conventional and simple. For example the music video starts off with the band playing the song in front of a bright red background with white walls around it. It is nothing special but keeps the video original. Then as the song starts to up the tempo so does the video as well. This is because they start bringing a little narrative into it with what looks like the police facing off to the band. Then as the song is reaching the climax, the police charge at the band and this results in red water gushing into them from the very same red background that was behind the band and around the white walls. This makes a good surprise and fits in well with the song itself as the water comes out as soon as the song starts the final conclusion. This video is very well constructed to show the binary opposites within the start as it is very light to the start where it is very dark and fast paced. An example of the binary opposites uses are shown below. The start being light is below and the end being dark is below that.  

As you can see from the video they also use a lot of close ups. This is because it is a very common convention in most music videos as it shows peoples reactions better and it really makes the audience feel like they are with the band playing the song. Most bands like the "Foo fighters" have also choose to use fast editing while having close being used. This is to help the video stay in time with the songs beats and make it interesting. For example this song is very fast paced at certain stages so it is important that the editing keeps in time with the beats. This requires precision editing and a very up to date camera to record the amount of pixels used. An example of a close up being used in the video is shown below.                         

This music video is very impressive mostly due to the way it has been constructed. Foo Fighters in particular are very good at doing this as they have shown this in other music videos they have created. This video gives people a good example of a well constructed video.

Below is a link to my powerpoint presentation of "The Pretender" analysed.

"http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/13555670"

Steel panther music video prelim storyboard

Institutions that exhibit music promos

Music promo institutions promote and distribute music. They are usually big businesses that make a lot of income due to their worldwide distributions. They are in control of all their artists, bands and other branched companies that help the process of distributing music.

One of the largest music institutions is Warner Music group. WMG is a global leader in national and international range distribution for songs. They own some of the best known labels in the music industry like Asylum, Atlantic, Cordless, East West and so many more. They license in over 50 countries. Over the years WMG have become the third largest recorded music business and the third largest publisher music business. The reason they are so popular is due to the huge amount of bands and genres that they cover including the likes of Green Day.

 

Another well known music institution is Sony music entertainment who are based in the UK. They are one of the largest music and entertainment companies in the world. Sony cover a huge basis of artists from the local artists to the worldwide superstars. They are the 2nd largest recorded music business in the world. Their extensive assortment of artists include Leona Lewis, Justin Timberlake and many more superstars. One of Sony music entertainment branches are Syco. Syco are based in London established in 2002 by A and R executive. 

 

Universal music group (UMG) are the worlds leading music company containing both publisher and recorded aspects of the music company. Some example record labels include the likes of Barclay, Disa, Mercury records, Machete music and more. Most people associate Universal with their great films but they are also known for their great music distribution.

 



 

 



EMI is the fourth largest music company in the music industry. It's record labels include Angel, blue note, capitol and more. They range in a wide range of ages in terms of their audiences and a wide range of genres. Their revenue comes from two sources being the sale of recorded music in physical and digital domain and the the second being the licensing of repertoire to EMI partners worldwide. The rest covers the income from the over 50 plus countries they provide to around the world.

 





Music Definitions

Definitions

Illustration: This is a rendition that is created to eludicate or dictate sensual information. The illustration in a music video is the literal meaning to the song's lyrics in visual form. For example this can be used when an artist or band want to include visual text in their video to link in with what they are saying during the song. A song example would be in the song "fireflies" when the text fire flies comes up on one of the toys when the artist says the words. This makes the video smoother and more free flowing. This also show good techniques to add new features to the video.
 

Amplification: This is very similar to disjunction. Amplification is the enhancement of a concept while still retaining a link to it, this technique works well in marketing and advertising the band. This helps bands and artists to become more popular in their specific songs.
 

Disjunction: This is when a music video goes completely against the ethics and meanings of the video. This helps to make a video different and apply to a different target audience. For example a music video could show people being all happy but the music itself is very slow and sad. This adds a different side to the usual format of music videos.  

Music video conventions

Camera Shots

One of the most common conventions used in music videos are the regular uses of close up camera shots. This is because close up shots help bring the audience closer to the actual band and their music to help them feel like they are with their favourite bands hearing their music. Close up shots show all the important details that need to be shown. For example if the only instrument that was being played was a guitar during a guitar solo then the close up camera shots would only be concentrating on the important things. In this case it would be the singer with the guitar and the guitar itself. Below is an example shot of a close up with a guitar being played. The close up camera shot is a shot that we will be including a lot in our music video as it is a commonly used shot especially in a Glam Rock video.

 

Sound

 

The typical conventions in the sound of music videos is the vocals of the actual singers. This is the case for most music videos but can sometimes be different. For example Michael Jackson's song "Thriller" uses the sound and other features to make the music video almost like a short film. This is because it has lots of sound that is not vocals. For example one is where Vincent Price talks half way through the 13 minute video and talks about the undead relating to the video. In this video there are also non diegetic sound of the zombies and the werewolf making noises. So in all most of the sound is vocals but you can often get the odd non diegetic sound or even diegetic sometimes. There will be no diegetic sound in our music video as we want all the singing and instrument sounds to be non diegetic.

 

Genre



 

The genre of music videos can vary extensively. This is because there are many different music video genres. For example just some genres can include rock, metal, RnB, pop, indie, country and many more. All these different genres suite different people so this is why there are so many. Bands and artists usually only use 1 or 2 genres because they want to be represented in that certain way. Genres can be very important in establishing the band/artist. The genre for our song Rock Pride is Glam Rock.

 

Representation

 

The representation of music videos is important in representing and publicising the band/artist. This is because if you were an artist then you would want to make sure that you are the one in most of the footage so that you get well known. The same applies for bands as they also need to get publicity and popularity. You as a band/artist do not want a bad representation of yourself. 

 

Mise-en-scene



 

The mise-en-scene of music videos is the importance of everything shown within the shot used/music video. An example would be Cold plays song called "back to the start". This is because the whole video is based on a person walking forward throughout the video. You find out at the end though that the entire video was filmed backwards so it is actually showing the persons journey back to when he crashes his car. This uses mise-en-scene because all you see is the certain person and the differ rent background around him. The mise-en-scene is very important during this video because the background is the most important thing because the person does not really change but the background does so you want tot know what is going on. As we our using two days of filming to film our music video it is vital that we take into consideration the arrangement of the mise-en-scene props. For example we need to put the props and equipment all in the same place in the first and the second time of filming to ensure that the props and equipment are all in the same place.

 

Camera Movement

 

The next typical convention would be the use of the camera movement. This is because the camera generally moves with the band itself and stays in the same sort of tune as the specific song. This helps to make the scenes realistic and appropriate. When recording the video you can use the camera movement to film both narrative and performance in order to involve the audience into the scene more. This is why when a music video is being filmed there tends to be a lot of tracking shots, close ups, tilts and pans. We might use a few pans in our music video but they will only be short ones due to the consistency of the fast shots.

 

Editing



                                                                                

Editing is the next convention. This is because it is vitally important that the editing pace and elements are in the correct rhythm to the actual song itself. This helps the sync of the music video. For example if the song in a music video was in the genre of “rock” then the editing pace would need to be fast and the camera shots would need to be fast. If the song was in the genre of “romantic” then the editing would be at a slower pace. The editing in our music video will be fast and quick.

 

Lighting

The lighting and colour within a music video seems to always suite the specific song. For example if there was a happy song then the lighting would be very light and clear. If the song was sad though the lighting would be very dark and some camera shots may be disorientated. An example of this can be shown below as you can see Olie Murs song called “don’t let me go” which is very light below and then below that one  is Snow patrols song called “chasing cars” which is very dark. These both show a good example of binary opposites. The lighting for our music video will be very dark and the only light will be on the band themselves to really emphasis the fact that the band are the main focus in the shot. this might also apply for the rules of thirds to make sure that the lighting on the band is in the middle of the shot.

 

Narrative/Performance

 

The last typical convention in a music video would be the mixture of narrative and performance. Each band or artist is very different so they will all have different amounts each to suite the particular song. For example if a band was doing a song that was made for a recent film that is coming out then the music video would include a lot of narrative compared to performance. If a band wanted to show themselves of though they might want to do performance in the majority of the video. This is a mix which bands and artists will want to make sure they get right. An example of a mostly narrative video would be Foo fighters “breakout” and an example of a mostly performance based video would be the "The Pretender" by the same band the Foo Fighters. In our video the narrative will be on the band themselves preparing for the filming of the music video. Then the performance will obviously be the band at the concert filming the music video.

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