Michael Jackson - The King of Pop & King of the Pop Video Part 2

In the previous part to this post, I discussed about some of Michael Jackson's earlier music videos and how he has tried to change his image from beginning in Jackson 5 to becoming his own single and independent artist. Now following Michael's 'Thriller' he was the biggest pop star in the world. All of his videos managed to make it on the news without effort. There was seen to be massive excitement about the release of the next video 'Bad'. This was an important song because Michael's fans and audience couldn't wait to see what his new image was and the new dance routine that he had planned for the music video. The lyrics of the song are actually relatively simple and the music video is mainly just choreographed dancing. As well as the dancing, you can also see that the song has been lip synced which seems to be so far what Michael is used to doing as the only song so far in which he has actually been singing in is 'Rock With You'.

The next song 'Black and White' that is really an iconic song because is is all about equality and sends a really strong message. This video was very expensive to produce. This video was important to Michael because he was trying to resurrect his career because there were many allegations that he was strange. The main allegations were because Michael has decided to change his image and this is the moment when he decided that he was going to change his skin colour. The expenses for the music video would have been extremely high because of the locations that they had to film at but as well as in the beginning of the song when Michael is at the safari. After this happens we go to the wild west where they are plenty of people in costumes and on horses running around the set. I'm sure that it would not have been cheap to get the costumes for about 40 people and to get horses for half of them. Finally the last song in the list to analyse is Michael's 'Earth Song'. This song is sending an extremely strong message about how us humans, are damaging our planet. It shows how we are recklessly damaging the animals around us as well for the things that they have and the habitats that they live in. Even to our own fellow humans but those who are in the third world and don't have enough food or water to stay alive. As well as leaving those who need food and water to fend for themselves there are also those who hurt each not by neglect, but also by the fact that nations wage war on each other and all of the small villages and towns are the ones to suffer after all of the fighting is over. I believe that Michael is seen to be a sort of Christ-like character as he can feel all of the people in the world who are suffering. That is why he then begins to start undoing all of the things that we humans have done to our planet such as killing animals for their furs, CO2 emissions from factories and deforestation. I think that the message of this song is that if we keep going in this direction, there may not be much of the planet left to save.
Overall, Michael's music videos weren't just your typical songs. They became his weapon of choice where he was able to reinvent his image, tell stories and address issues that he wanted to point out.

Michael Jackson - The King of Pop & King of the Pop Video Part 1

most of us know Michael Jackson. If you don't, honestly where have you been? But from an early age Micheal was seen to have unbelievable talent that can be viewed while he was with his brothers in Jackson 5. One of the earlier songs that was sung by the Jackson 5 was Rockin Robin. This song is rather simple because all of the Jackson 5 weren't actually singing the song as they were lip syncing. But also the video is quite simple as it is just the group at various different venues that they performed at so overall the video and song were not that complicated.
The next song that I believe that is iconic for Michael is Rock With You because it changed the public's view of him. In this music video unlike the last one with Jackson 5 where all of the members are just lip syncing; in this video he is actually singing the song. As well as singing the song lyrics, there are also other elements of the song that are also considered to be unique. One especially good feature is the use of lighting that is used throughout the video. it is a very simple set-up of background strobe lighting  with a spotlight being shone on him. Another interesting thing about the video is that the costume he is wearing is rather shiny and sines even more due to the lights being shone on him.
The next video that is one of Michael's popular song is Billy Jean. This is a very interesting song because unlike the others songs we have looked at before this song is telling a story. Although there is obviously lip syncing in the song, he still manages to make the song work. The other nice effects that is included in the film is where he steps on the tiles on the floor and as he steps on them, they light up. This is used again at the end of the video but instead of us actually seeing Michael, all we can see is the tiles lighting up and because we have seen this at the beginning of the video we know it is him.
Beat It is a very similar song to Billy Jean simply because it tells a story but it is better than  i think that it is better than Billy Jean because the choreography is quite elaborate at the end of the video. This is something that hasn't been present in all the songs that we have looked at so far.

Next is Michael's biggest song of all time, Thriller and is still considered to be the most famous music video by the Library of Congress which added it to it's National Film Registry in 2009 and was in fact their first music video entry. The video is seen to be a cultural milestone for music videos everywhere because of the elaborate choreography, the costumes and dialogue and the fact that the video was a long version of  a music video which in turn makes the song seem like a mini-movie that can be edited down to a smaller version. The longer version of Thriller actually runs for 14 minutes and on Youtube has managed to get up to 100 million views. Whenever MTV had shown the song, they would normally run the five minute version of the song but this version still contained the prologue of the music video where the couple are in the movie theatre. The video for this song cost $500,000 to make and Michael's record company initially had no intention of paying for it since the album was on the downswing. The director of the video, John Landis says that Michael really wanted to turn into a monster so he offered to pay for the clip himself but also because he wanted to bring back the short film genre. Michael didn't actually need to pay for the video because they made deals with Showtime and MTV to cover the costs. Showtime then decided to show a one hour special for 'the making of' documentary and the 14 minute video before it was shown anywhere else. The director of MTV heard of this and was outraged that he was going to lose a Michael Jackson video to Showtime. So he paid $250,000 for the exclusive broadcast rights once Showtime's window ended. The video won Best Performance Video, Best Choreography and Viewer's Choice at the first MTV Music Awards in 1984. Since the song was made in 1982, you could buy a VHS or beta copy of Thriller including the full video. This tape then became the biggest selling music video of all time and was later certified in the Guinness World Records as the top selling music video of all time, moving 9 million units.

Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines Controversy

There has been a lot of controversy about the song Blurred Lines because of the reference that the lyrics suggest about rape. University College London student union (UCLU) took a step to ban Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines. Another 20 student unions have decided to join as well. This song has become the most controvserial song of the decade. which can be seen as a unexpected achievement though not one that Thicke can be especially proud of. In April, one blogger has branded it as a "rape song", this then caught fire of many other media outlets. Although the song has already critics firing at every aspect of the song, there seems to be different versions of the song where the dancers in the song are topless. Throughout the summer, the song even started to overshadow the biggest hit of 2013, Daft Punk's Get Lucky. Edinburgh University Student's Association (EUSA) became the first student body to ban Blurred Lines. They said that "It promotes a very worrying attitude towards sex and conssent." Basically they are implying that the song is suggesting rape also even when the woman may be saying no, she really means yes. This is seen in the song lyrics: 'Ok now he was close, tried to domesticate you. But you're an animal, baby, it's in your nature.'

The video of the song was made and directed by Diane Martel who said "It forces the men to feel playful and not at all like predators. I directed the girls to look into the camera. This isvery intentional and they do this most of the time; they are in the power position. I don't think the video is sexist. The lyrics are ridiculous, the guys are silly as ****."
In my personal opinion, I don't believe that the aong is suggesting anything about rape because there is no actual reference of it plus the word is never used throughout the song. I think that because of the explicit content of the video and what some of the lyrics is suggesting is making people assume that it is what the song is about.
 There are also wider issues that have been made about the song. One of Blurred Lines most prominent models, Emily Ratajkowski, (shown on the right) has said "I'm glad that people are criticising pop lyrics, because I think that's an important thing to do." This has been an issue before when MC Rick Ross rapped on Rocko's single UOENO, which is about spiking someone's drink in a club in order to have sex with her. There was a public outcry where the general public was attempting to force an apology.

Evaluation - Don't Go Breaking My Heart

• What have you learnt about filming music videos?

I have learnt that it isn't that easy to be able to film a music video in just one complete shot because there may be some small things that happen during the filming which will need to be redone again. You also need to film in at least 3 or 4 different shots so that we can cover all of the bits that we don't want with a different shot.

• What have you learnt about filming duets?

Filming duets can be a bit difficult to film because you have to make sure that both of the people who are in the video do not make mistakes. But this is also why they film the video with different shots so that the sections that they don't like they can edit it when they have filmed all of the shots that they want.

• Describe the process of editing

The process of editing is to be able to capture all of the footage that we recorded of the music video. Once all of the footage was uploaded onto the computer we then had to sort through it and layer it so that we could decide which parts that we want. While editing we needed to layer some parts of the music to make sure that the video synced with the film footage of me and Connor singing along to the song. After a while it will then look like me and Connor are singing in sync with the song.

• What have you learnt about editing music videos?

I have learnt that in order to edit music videos it isn't overly that difficult because all of the layers of the video and the song have been split into layers so it is simply the matter of selecting the layer that you want to put the video footage and where you want it to cut to the next shot. This has been used before when we were making our previous video 'Waking Up' where we alternated between different shots such as POV, Close up, Long shot etc; As it helps to give the audience another perspective.

• In what ways could you improve the filming/editing of the sequence?

I cannot really think of a way that we could improve the video as i think that it is as good we we could possibly make it. But that is just my perspective, any outside criticism would maybe point out some of the flaws in the video that i cant see for myself.

Music Video - Don't Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee

In order to understand how music videos in today's music industry, we have to be able to lip sync with the song and combine it with a recording of me and Connor singing the song. First, we need to shoot the video at 3 or 4 different angles. We needed to film us doing the first minute and a half of the song but throughout the whole song we have to make sure that we don't look at anything else but the camera.


Aaron & Connor are Fabulous from Robert Clack Media and Film on Vimeo.

In this video me and my partner Connor are lip syncing to Elton John and Kiki Dee's - Don't Go Breaking My Heart. Although it may look like it was filmed in 1 go, it took a while editing and filming in order to receive this finished product.

The Pitch - Superman By Behind Bad Luck

The Pitch is the ideal way for a group of people to give another group of people an idea that they are thinking of and to see if the idea will sell. This is typically seen on shows such as The Apprentice where there are these young people trying to create their own product and trying to convince the heads to take on their product. In my Prezi slideshow, I am trying to show how we got the stage that we are now where we know what we want to create for the music video. The original idea came from a band that i had found on unsigned.com called Behind Bad Luck. They are a ska band which have unfortunately broken up for years now but have allows other people to use their music. But just to make sure that I was allowed to use their music, I had to write a post on their old Facebook wall; in which they replied saying that it was alright. I then had to explain why i picked this specific genre and what it was actually about.
 Ska music was created in Jamaica in the 1950's and has the combined element of Caribbean calypso, American jazz and rhythm and blues. But the music that i have picked isn't just categorised as Ska, it is also part Punk Rock. Originally Punk Rock came from America between 1974-1976 and has created some iconic bands such as The Sex Pistols and The Ramones.
 A very similar band to the one that I am using the music of is called Streetlight Manifesto. The only difference between this band and the one that i am using the music off of is the fact that Streetlight Manifesto are a signed band and if i was to use their music i may not have the correct copyrights to use their songs which may cause problems. But also the problem with asking permission from signed bands is that the odds of them responding to an email from someone they don't know is really unlikely.
Our video idea is basically where a band approach someone in a park who is watching Man Of Steel and ask him if he wants to make a video with them. He then goes into a daydreaming state and the music video will then begin. It will be the band members and the other boy travelling around London playing their instruments in random locations. Coming to the end of the music video, the boy will then come back and then reality will set in. Also seeing as the song is called Superman, we thought that we wouldn't do the simple thing and just have someone in a Superman costume but that it would be someone who makes their own kind of super outfit like the video Kryptonite by Three Doors Down. The costumes that we will need for the music video will be simple because all of the normal band members will just be wearing normal white shirts with black and white ska ties which can be seen in the Prezi above.

Storyboard Ideas - Behind Bad Luck

22/10/13

After planning and picking the music that we are going to choose for our music video, we have finally started to plan the actual making of the music video. Although the ideas at the moment are quite rough because it is just the beginning of the ideas and that we may change them in the near future but the people in our group (Connor, Nick and Dapo) have an idea about what the beginning of the video will be like.
Since the music that we are choosing is influenced by a Ska band tha we have chosen called Behind Bad Luck. The idea is that we will need instruments such as a trumpet or saxophone and the main instruments like a guitar and bass guitar. Our initial idea for the first shot is that we have the main character (Tomas) on the swing watching 'Man Of Steel' and then says something like "I want to be like him!". Then the rest of the group will come into the shot and say "Then let's do it!". We will all then depart different ways and then the shot will be of all of the members of the group putting on the gear which we have agreed will be white shirts and blackad white ska ties apart from the leader Tomas who will have a red tie to signify that he is the leader of the group. This is as far that we have gotten into the idea of the music video, we will have a nother group discussion in the near future and will then further plan our music video.

4/11/13
After the lesson, we have finally begun to make our start on how the music video that we are going to make is going to look. The main person in the music video will be the same as in our last video Tomas, as we believe that he has the acting skill to make the video come alive. So far we have planned the beginning of the video. First, we will have Tomas sitting on the swing in the park watching the latest Man Of Steel movie on his phone. Then a group of band members who will be me, Connor, Dapo and Nick will approach him and ask if he would like to make a music video with us. As soon as they ask the question, Tomas then goes into a daydreaming stance which is where the music will actually begin. After this happens the music video will contain different shots of us, the band members playing the instruments to the song while there will also be short clips of us performing around different and iconic locations around London. Coming to the end of the music video, we will then come back to the question that the bands members asked Tomas which is where the music video will end. The picture that is shown on the right is only the first page of the storyboard that we have completed so far but by the time next week when we will have begun filming; there will be many more sheets.

How Katy Perry's latest pop video 'Roar' reinforces her brand identity and reflects her personal life

Katy Perry has many pop videos and the target audience that she is trying to reach is teenagers but mainly girls. She is clearly trying to show the role of 'Big Sister' by trying to inspire younger girls. This is clearly shown in one of her music videos 'Firework'. The music video shows many different examples of that people in the world shouldn't be hiding away their true feelings. In the video, there are kids who are worrying about problems but then by the end of the video, they overcome their fears. The idea of the video is to show a positive image to the audience in saying that "You can be yourself". A common thing with Katy Perry's videos is that they don't have a low budget at all. She doesn't waste any expenses to try to prove her point and become a big role model.

But before Firework, Katy Perry was seen as a more sexual and desirable female. California Girls one of her prior videos, shows her off as a sexy type of fantasy image. It could also be said that when the video was produced, she was going through a 'Miley Cyrus' phase because she was conveying the image that she is a young and attractive woman. While this technique definitely worked, a couple of years later she was then married to Russel Brand. Although Russel was married to Katy, he believed that it wasn't enough and that the romance was basically none existent. He has even quoted that he had to think of other women while they were married because the spark had gone. This then caused them to split up and become divorced; which then inspired her next song. This song explains all of Katy Perry's emotions as she explains "You made it so sweet, until I woke up on, on the concrete". This shows how she realizes the mistakes that she has made by marrying Russel and she has woken up to the light. In the song however, there are signs that she is already over Russel while talking to a stage hand as if she is flirting with him but then become friendly at the end of the conversation. There are many references throughout the song which explains the trials she has had to endure after the break up.  One reference in the song is where there are men with bulls for heads. I think that this symbolizes that she had a mental breakdown as in this section she was in a wheelchair but then breaks free with, I presume, a young version of herself called Katheryn. In the last elements of the song, she comes to a clearing to meet her 'Prince Charming' on a unicorn. The unicorn is a pure creature of imagination which also means that the Prince Charming is also an illusion (Russel Brand). To make matters worse and more obvious, the 'Prince Charming' crosses his fingers when they meet which means that he doesn't actually love her at all and hope that the relationship falls apart.

Now we come to the conclusion and analysis of Katy Perry's recent video 'Roar'. Like the previous video 'Wide Awake', there are also references about her previous relationship with Russel. In the song lyrics she clearly states "You held me down, but I got up. Already brushing off the dust". I believe that this means that Russel was holding her down but now she sees the mistakes that she has made and that she is completely forgotten about him. The costuming and effects for this video is seen to be very productive, so again she hasn't wasted any expenses. I think that she is trying to get back to her original target audience of teenage girls but at the same time showing an image that she is available because of the costume she is wearing.

Organic and Synthetic Music

The term 'Organic' in the music industry is to describe bands who care that the music comes first which typically means that it is from the hear. They are the ones who decide the kind of music that they want to create and then the record label (if they are signed), try to sell their music to the correct target market.
 While on the other hand, Synthetic music can be seen to be similar to 'Xfactor' music. This is where the artist/s are not really in control of the music that they want to make but instead it is the record labels that decide the kind of music that they want to sell. The role of the record labels is for them to find a gap in the market (normally a kind of genre of music) and then explout it so that the artist or the music that they produce will fit in that genre. Money is the main objective when it comes to this kind of music. There are other acts that follow this kind of style e.g. The Spice Girls, McFly and JLS are classed as 'manufactured' artists.

The Major, Major-Independent and Independent Music Labels

Major Music Companies

The same as the film industry, there is also major people who are involved in the music industry. The first thing that i will go through is the major music labels. The music industry is dominated by four major multi national companies and they are Universal, Sony Music, Warner Brothers and EMI. They are known as the major companies because as well as 'having their finger in; the other businesses such as film, TV and electronics. Universal Music Group (UMG) is the largest American music corporation as well as being the biggest in some of the other categories, their publishing  company is the second largest in the world which makes Universal overall; a very big company.

Sony Music is also an American company and is obviously part of Sony Corp. Sony Music was founded in 1929 and have continued strong and have placed themselves as the second largest music company in the world.
Warner Music Group is another American major label global record company which is headquartered in New York. The company controls some of the largest and most successful recording labels in the world which include Parlophone and Atlantic Records.
EMI is a British (Finally!) multinational music recording and publishing company  and occasionally an equipment manufacturing company which is HQ'ed in London. At the time of it's break-up, it was the fourth largest business group and family record labels in the recording industry. The company then began to have financial troubles and $4 billion in debt in February of 2011. They would then have to sell their arm of the company to Universal Music Group for $1.9 billion and Sony/ATV for $2.2 billion.

Major- Independent 

The major independent companies are normally owned by the major companies such as Universal and Warner Brothers. They are create their own content as an independent companies but the majo companies take profits from them and give them their share. They try to reach different kinds of audiences in a different kind of genres. For example,  because Universal is the big company, they make all of the films that people want to see such as Despicable Me 2; which smashed box office record. While the major independent will make the smaller films to reach the smaller audiences.The five big major independent studios are Columbia, Island, Syco, RCA and Virgin.
Volumbia Records is a premier recording label which is currently under the ownership of Sony Music Entertainment and was founded in 1888.
Syco Music which was previously called Syco Records is a British record label whic was founded in 2002. It is distributed by Sony Music only for the United Kingdom music industry while in America all of the music that it produced is released by Columbia for The United States.
The RCA Music Group was the umbrella group to Sony Music Entertainment between the time of MAy 2004 to 2009. But then later sometime between July 2011 and October 2011, the music group was then merged into RCA Records to become one company.
Virgin Records is a British record label that was founded by many iconic figures in 1972. The comany then began to grow when platinum artists such as Janet Jackson and te Spice Girls began performing with the company. Virgin Records is currently owned by Universal Music Group.

Independents

There are those companies who are a lot smaller than the Majors and `Major-Independents which will have either little or no financial connection to the majors. These types of companies decide to concentrate their energy on a much smaller number of acts. An example of a successful independeny company could 'Domino Records'. Normally for independent companies, that start off as record labels who then may or may not be chosen by a major company which will then in title make them a major-independent.

How Pop Videos Market An Image? - Miley Cyrus

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/06/miley-cyrus-exploited-empowered-debate

Is Miley Cyrus exploited or empowered in her latest pop video?
In the link to The Guardian post above, there is a debate as to whether Miley Cyrus is in full control of the way in which she is trying to show her new image or whether the people and producers around her are simply trying to market her as a prostitute? Barbara Ellen believes that she is being exploited. She claims that the letter Sinead O'Connor sent to Miley explains how she is worried that she is be exploited by the people around her. But instead of Miley taking in the words of Sinead, she riposted by mocking Sinead's past mental health issues. It is also said in The Guardian post that the new female artists will need the help of the older artists because they explain how if 'you're not prepared to strip to "edgy" videos, you can smooch your contract goodbye'. This is a fair point because in today's society, it isn't unusual for women's music videos when they strip down to skin tight clothing but when the music artist aren't, it isn't as popular. For example, in Adele's videos, in none of them is she striping down her clothing and this is not for her image but her music videos still sell.
On the other hand, Bertie Brandes believes that Miley is becoming empowered by changing her image and that it isn't the people around her who are trying to create her image, but that she is trying to change it herself. Miley claims that 'Hannah was murdered' which only means that she is trying to get rid of her past fan base and trying to make a new name for herself. Even Bertie explains that when she was Miley's age, she was desperate to be sexy at 20 which means that the phase that Miley is going through will hopefully be over. Bertie also attacks Sinead's letter to Miley by saying that everyone is reacting and criticising the actions of a young woman and that the only way in which we can deal with this is to 'stop playing the record labels game by blogging about her music (Sorry!) videos and start asking them more difficult questions.

We all remember the nice, cute teenager that was once Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana, but what happened to her? Well, she turned into a twerking, sledgehammer licking monster who i believe has her priorities messed up. We can go back to years ago when Hannah Montana was still airing on Disney channel and we all had our favourite show. I'm going to show you the different of then and now. Now in this video, this is the teenager which had millions of girls and maybe some boys who looked up to her because she was a teen sensation. But since she was getting older, of course she is going to recognise the older world which also means that she was probably going to start doing drugs. This is a reasonable assumption because there were others who are older than her who have done the same thing such as Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan and even Kylie Minogue; so what she is going through is no different. But then now that she is older, she is making video such as Wrecking Ball, which is making her seem more like a sexual object. Miley also adopted the style of Sinead O'Connors Nothing Compares To U by having a close up at he beginning of the song and with the tear rolling down her cheek at the start of the song. This is what sparked Sinead to try to explain to Miley what she is doing wrong and this is exactly what we need is for someone to explain to her exactly what she is doing wrong.
Miley is cleverly using the pop videos in her most current music videos to try and change her music, fans and image. So the real question about Miley Cyrus is what is she really trying to accomplish and is it really working?

How Does A Music Video Get Made? Case Study 3 - Alex Southam

Alex Southam as well as Emil Nava also freelances for OB Management. He originally trained to become a lawyer but decided to turn into a new direction and work in filming. His reason for deciding to make music videos was that he wanted to 'learn the trade'.

One of Alex Southam’s previous employers Agile Films described him as: An exciting new talent who works in a dizzying variety of styles in both live and animation. For a person who is entirely self-taught his creativity has caught the eye of a series of independent promos for the likes of Walkmen, Alt+J and Lianne la Havas. Alex joined Agile in August 2012.

When Southam began his career, he undertook all of the tasks in his video such as Filming, Lighting and Editing. But now he uses a Director of Photography, which helps him to create his videos. In Southam’s videos, he likes to use the format where ‘you can try new techniques and can have real artistic freedom’. I believe that he means that you can also try new techniques when you are filming and that you should be able to have as much creative freedom as you have the imagination for. This means that he is a lot less keen on commercials because they all for a lot less creative freedom. He uses a online showcase called 'Vimeo' to show his videos. This website/application is becoming a lot more popular platform as it is considered to be a 'higher status' than Youtube.

His big breakthrough started with a video Tesselate by Alt J. He was provided with a budget of £10,000 and all of the shooting was completed in 1 day. The casting for the video was quite large and he also used aftereffect in the video. The other video that he directed was for Chase & Status - Lost and Not Found. For this video he was given a budget of £50,000 which is seen as a medium amount size of money when you compare is works to the likes of Emil Navas (who i have explained in the previous post) He decided to film the video in Los Angeles and used Steadicam. Steadicam is a stabilising camera which is used for smooth filming and ignores the camera mans movement. I believe that it is mainly used when the user of the camera is trying to move and keeo the camera steady at the same time. He filmed the video at 36 FPS (frames per second) which is rather high quality but then decided to slow the footage down. He fwas influenced by Massive Attacks - Unfinished Sympathy. He thought that the best way to make the video was to aim to make the video look like it was from the early 1990's with a VHS look. The unique thing about the video is that there are only three edits throughout the entire clips. Can you spot them?

How Does A Music Video Get Made? Case Study 2 - Emil Nava

Emil began his video making as a runner for film production companies. He previously worked for Blink Industries but now freelances for OB Management. After working as a runner, he then graduated to Assistant Director (A.D) where he would then be able to manage the video shoots. After this he the signed to Academy who are the biggest video production company out so far. Then he worked for Between the Eyes and now mainly work for Pulse. He has now started making adverts, which generally allow a much higher budget than making videos but at the compromise that it allows a lot less creative freedom. His most famous or well know advert is the L'Oreal 'Dare To Be Different' . One of Emil's years have been very busy where he has created up to 24 music videos in one year. He began by working for independent agencies and was given a budget as low as £5,000 to up to £10,000. To this day, his most expensive video to dat has been made for Jessie J with a budget of £160,000. Emil's first video was for the band Kid British and their track 'Our House'. He was given a budget of £20,000 and chose to produce the video in Manchester. Although the budget was a lot more than smaller independent filming companies, he decided that the cast of the video would be the local residents. The filming for the video only took 1 day but the editing took between 2/3 days and the pre-production took 10 days. This shows that the very small and tight time scale that Emil had to work with. The company that Emil freelances for OB Management work as agents for music video directors such as Emil. They have 4 mains aims and they are:-
-Nurture talent
-Work with production companies
-Work with record labels
-Match the right director to the right artists
The list of companies that OB Management work with are Pulse Films, Rocket, Agile Films, Friends and Wonda. A popular artist that Emil has made videos for are Paloma Faith. He has helped her create some of her videos such as '30 Minute Love Affair' and 'Picking Up The Pieces'. Palmoa Faith's video. The other artists that Emil has worked with include Ed Sheeran, Jessie J and Rita Ora. The songs that he also directed and created include: Lego House, Do It Like A Dude, R.I.P, You Need Me and Price Tag. While creating these videos, Emil only had 2 main tips and they are to use the Extreme Close Up  on the artists face whenever it is possible. An example if this is in Sinead O'Connor's - Nothing Compares to U. Throughout the song was mainly just a close up through the entire song showing her face with a few background fades periodically. The other main tip that Emil had was to not shoot the entire video in a medium/long shot. I believe that Emil said this because then you cannot see the emotion on the artists face which means that the video will not be as effective.

How Does A Music Video Get Made? Case Study 1 - Jamie Thraves

Case Study 1:- Jamie Thraves 

Jamie began creating videos while he was at university. He then used an award winning short film that he had created as a "calling card" in order for him to get a "foot in the door" with the video production company Factory Films. His first three videos that he began shooting cost about £5,000 each.
The process in order for a director to be selected to produce a video is like a competition. Normally between 5-10 directors apply for the job but first need to pitch their idea to the "Commissioner". At this stage, the applying directors are not paid for their ideas.The director who has the best idea and fits the music better will be selected to produce the video. Only then will the chosen director will be paid. The business for directors is very fragile and sensitive because although 10 directors will have the chance to get the job, there will only really be one person who will get the job.

Jamie Thraves has applied for different jobs and both of his treatments have been selected. One of his videos that have been selected was from Radiohead - Just. Jamie was given a budget of £100,000 and the video was shot in three days. The video for this song is very unique because throughout the song there is a man who is simply just laying in the middle of the floor throughout the song and the nearby pedestrians are trying to understand and help him. Us, the audience watching, as well are trying to understand why he is on the floor as well but we never know. Near the end of the song, he explains to the pedestrians why he is on the floor but us who are watching cant see the subtitles. This video is effective because we are all wondering why he's on the floor..

The other video that Jamie created was for Coldplay called The Scientist. This is also another unique video because the whole video goes backwards but the words of the song fit. Jamie was given a budge of £200,000 to produce the video to this song and was also shot in three days. his video was very difficult to produce because the lead singer of Coldplay (Chris Martin) had the memorise the lyrics to the whole song and try to think of words that are similar to the words of the song. But in truth he was miming all of the words. The key words to the song and what made it all make sense was the words "Lets go back to the start" since he was trying to forget the car accident that he was involved in with which seems like his girlfriend or wife.
All of the videos that Jamie Thraves has created so far has allowed him to be able to get into the music business. So far he has made three titles called:
-The Low Down
-The Cry Of The Owl
-Treacle Jr
Jamie had two main tips for making a pop video and they were:
-Use the lyrics but try not to be too literal
-Go with the emotion of the lyrics

Purpose Of Music Promo Video No.2

There are many more aspects to promoting a video in today's society. With advertising and trying to promote an image for their fans, the already known artists such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera will try to promote some of their fragrances in order to game more income. For example, in Britney Spears' song Circus, she tries to promote her latest fragrance. The purpose for artists to promote themselves and their fragrance is so that they can earn excess income from their audience viewing the video and seeing their product which in turn will then make them want to buy their perfume as well.



There are others artists that will try to make a statement in their video and will try to make them unique. There are many examples of this:
~Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime
~Here It Goes Again - White Knucklers
~Lady Gaga - Born This Way
These examples are trying to make their songs a lot more memorable so that people will try to come back and listen or eve  buy their CD's. Here It Goes Again by the White Knuckles is unique and iconic because of the dogs in the video but also by the fact that there is dogs in the video which makes it more memorable and the fact that the video was shot in one take. This is very unique for a video because most of todays video are shot in different angles trying to focus on the main artist. Lady Gaga on the other hand is very memorable because of all of the weird images that is included at the beginning of the video which is because she is trying to appease to her fans; her "Monsters".

There are many different types of ways in  which artists can try to promote their videos and music. These are called Extension Outlets since its the artists way of you hearing their music. Before the making of Youtube it was a lot more popular to head to stores such as HMV where you can purchase your favourite music. Years ago MTV (Music Television) was the most popular way where you can hear your favourite music because years on and with the creation of Youtube, we are now able to watch videos and listen to music free of charge.

Marketing An Image - Adele + Lady Gaga

Song artists in today's society will try to portray a certain image to their fans or even to try and get the message across. AN example of this is Adele and Lady Gaga. These are two very different artists that are portrayed in different styles. Lady Gaga is seen to be unique and weird which can be seen from her music videos and the kinds of clothes that she wears in the video and outside it. While Adele on the other hand, she trys to market herself a different way by trying to reach her audience on an emotional level by saying that she is exactly like everyone else.

Now the example i am going to use is Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. Being one of her first videos she is trying to establish her image t her new fans which has worked. At the beginning of the video she is in the middle and the centre of attention. She is using a technique called Hedonism which is an atmosphere of sexualism as if to say "There is enough to go around". This is generally used in many videos done by female artists because it portrays them as objects to be used. The beginning shot also shows someone who is in control of all of the people in the shot; however this changes, During the song the hegemony changes as Lady Gaga who was  in power changes to the males but then at the end of the song then changes back to her.

While on the other hand as i have explained before marketing the image of Adele is different from Lady Gaga because she is reaching her audience on an emotional level.The black and white image and piano riff that is present in the song reinforces the lyrics of the song. The image that Lady Gaga is trying to show in her videos who not work for Adele simply because of her image. Although she has the face and beauty like Lady Gaga, record companies wouldn't try to market her as a sexy because of her size. Whereas other artists such as Rihanna, Beyonce etc can market that image.

Purpose Of A Music Promo Video - Sinead O'Connor

There are 5 main points that need to be considered when you are trying to promote a music video and they are:
-Different types of promotion
-Extension of Income
-Extension of Outlets
-Synergy
-Producer Strategies

When trying to make your music video and song a lot more popular there are several factors that need to be thought about such as where the products is going to be advertised. The video could be advertised on music channels which are made for pop and r&b videos. Examples of channels such of this are MTV Base and VIVA. The video for the song may also be included in a movie soundtrack which means that people will be able to get the song on direct DVD and can be purchased online or even in store although in store is a lot less likely and more expensive than buying the soundtrack online.

One thing that some songs do when they are soundtrack to a movie is that they can promote each other and this is called Synergy. For example, Bryan Adams - Everything I Do I Do For You was included in the movie: Robin Hood Prince Of Theives. The song and video for the song were so popular that they promoted each other and stayed top of the video viewing charts and musics charts for 20 weeks until they had to be removed. Bryan Adams was then replaced by Wet Wet Wet - Love is all around which was included in the movie Four Weddings and A Funeral which repeated the same thing as Bryan Adams and stayed at the top of the charts.

There are different producer strategies when you try to release a song. There are the major labels which are the big companies that advertise the song massively which helps with the income. This includes the major artist's such as Rihanna, Jessie J, Drake etc. Next there is the Independent companies who have some budget and sponsor some artists and promote their videos. hey don't generate as much income as the major companies as they do not have the funds to advertise as much and in more areas. Lastly, there  are the artist self -produced. These are most people who arent sponsored and have to find their own way to try and promote their videos. With the creation of Youtube, this has made it a lot easier for other people to hear unsponsored artists. An example of this is Justin Bieber. He was discovered on Youtube when Usher heard him singing one of his songs on Youtube and now he is sponsored and earning millions as well as the Arctic Monkeys.

Most songs are originally built to show emotion through the lyrics. An example of this is Sinead O' Connor - Nothing Compares to You where there is a key moment in the song where a single lyric causes her to cry because it is related to her mother who had recently died of cancer. This was really unique because there was a showing of actual emotion which is really hard to find in music videos these days.

Some artists try to either recreate their image or just try to create one. For example, Miley Cyrus. During her recent VMA, she surprised her audience by doing something that she as not expected to do. When asked why she did what she did she then said that she was trying to recreate her image. She no longer wants to be seen as the kid who was on Disney channel called Hannah Montana. But then are other artists such as Lady Gaga who start with a very unique image as being weird and different from others.

Genre Characteristics in Music Videos - Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin in Dancing in the Distribution factory (1992) identified that there were several different types of performances in metal videos and dance routines for boy/girl bands.
The typical type of description that would be given to a metal band would be that the band members would have: Long hair, tattoos and wear leather clothing. Now when metal band members are performing, you will see the band members playing their instruments in the song but in some cases there will be a back story behind the song. For example, the song by Drowning Pool, Let The Bodies Hit The Floor, there is a person in a mental asylum maybe suggesting that the people are trying to get inside his head.

 

Next you will have the generic boy bands such as New Kids On The Block and Boyzone. The normal style that they do is sing on stage and generally have a dance routine while perform their song. This promotes the song that they are doing so that younger teenagers will try to perform the dance routine. This is also used in girl bands such as Spice Girls or Girls Aloud which also dance during their songs

Lastly, Andrew Goodwin also recognised that there was a unique relationship between the music and visuals in a music video. He was able to recognise that the beat included in the song will change the pace of the editing of the song. For example, in Michael Jackson's Beat It video the pace of the song to begin with is very slow and while the dancing begins the pace starts to increase. This  can also be seen in slower songs were the editing will have slowed down and focused which means that there will be a much longer shot on the singer. Finally, in most pop videos there wil often be a lot of edits and close-ups of the singer/members becuase the record label will want motifs which will reoccur during their performances e.g. Michael Jackson's white glove and Nelly's bandage on his cheek. This will try to promote the singer and advertise them more.

Another thing that Andrew Goodwin realised about pop video is that there may be references in videos about looking through a screen or telescope to watch the video as it goes on. For example in Outkast Hey Ya, the beginning of the song introduces us by showing a tv presenter through an old TV set which then starts the video and this backs up what Goodwin is saying.

Laura Mulvey says that the camera behind the video can be seen as a male which is said in her book 'The Male Gaze'. This means that girls are seen as sexual objects rather than human beings.

A Brief History Of The Pop Video

In the 1950's pop music was dominated by artist's such as Elvis. He never toured Britain. In the 1960s this changed and The Beatles became the most popular pop musicians in the world. Following on from The Beatles were The Stones and The Kinks.
The BBC were limited in the amount of original music they could play (needle time) This was because of Copyright laws so they were only allowed to play a couple hours of the original records. Pirate radios sprang up and help publicise pop records - they played the original recordings. The British government were considering banning pirate radio but were worried about rebelling teenagers.
This then lead to the creation of bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks. This time was then called the Swinging Sixties because all of the bands began touring and presenting their music on Top Of The Pops.

Top of the Pops started and this was the only time fans could see famous pop acts apart from when they went on tour. Normally the band would come to the studio and perform their most popular songs but since The Beatles were tired to have to keep coming back to the studio to preform their songs for Top Of The Pops,The Beatles decided to make a short film of them singing their new single Paperback Writer. This was the first pop video ad became very popular with all their fans so The Rolling Stones thought that this was a
good idea and then decided to make their own music video. This then began the birth of the pop video which you will see accompanied with many songs of today's artist's.

Postmodernism

In lesson we have been looking at modernism and post modernism. We watched two videos and compared them as we can say that they are very similar. The video above is Take That Back for Good and below i am going to post another video by the Wanted Walks Like Rihanna. In the Waned video they have used elements from other older videos and have put them in their video. Postmodernism is the way in which we use the elements and techniques in modernism but then we change them into something else. For example, the traditional house would have either one or two bedrooms which would be upstairs with the kitchen and living room downstairs but in todays society they have changed the original design and have made it completely different. 

Blog Post 7: Track and Lyrics

Here are the song lyrics for the song that we have decided to choose for our music video. There is also the song underneath the lyrics. Although these are the same lyrics to the song that we are doing, the actual bands music we are using don't have an mp3 file that we can use. So you can see what song we are doing.

"Superman"

So here I am

doing everything I can

holding on to what I am

pretending I'm a superman

I'm trying to keep

the ground on my feet

it seems the world's

falling down around me

The nights are all long

I'm singing this song

to try and make the answers

more than maybe

And I'm so confused

about what to do

sometimes I want

to throw it all away

So here I am

growing older all the time

looking older all the time

feeling younger in my mind

And here I am

doing everything I can

holding on to what I am

pretending I'm a superman

I'm trying to sleep

I lost count of the sheep

my mind is racing faster

every minute

What could I do more

yeah I'm really not sure

I know I'm running circles

but I can't quit

And I'm so confused

about what to do

sometimes I want

to throw it all away

Controlling everything in site

I'm feeling weak

I don't feel right

you're telling me

I have to change

telling me to act my age

but if all that I can do

is just sit and watch time go

then I'll have to say good-bye

life's too short to watch it fly

to watch it fly

So here I am

growing older all the time

looking older all the time

feeling younger in my mind

And here I am

doing everything I can

holding on to what I am

pretending I'm a superman

Blog Post 6: Artist Profile

The band that we have decided to go with is Behind Bad Luck which we found on Unsigned.com. There arent that many details about the band but what we do know is that they are from Postsdam New York and that they prefer to travel and perform. The type of genre music that they like to perform is Ska music which originated in Jamaica.

Since there is no actual footage of the band playing at any specific venue, we have to assume that they wore typical ska clothing which consists of Black and White checkered clothing and ties. 

Blog Post 5:Choose Your Music

Me and my partner Connor have chosen to choose music from the legendary but yet split up band of My Chemical Romance. We find their music inspiration to many different alks of life and we believe that it will inspire others with the music that we will make. At this very moment we have emailed them to ask if we can use their music in our music video, we are therefore waiting for their reply so that we can confirm that we are able to use their music in our own music video.

13/6/13

After coming back from the weekend expecting a reply from them but we still havent gotten a reply back so we are thinking of other options for music to pick from. At this present moment in time now that our first option doesnt seem to be working, we will have to look for other artists. We would prefer to have permission from a known artist but we will begin our own individual research to find the best track. So we have looked on a website called Unsigned.com where there are unsigned atists who are looking for a chance for them to publicise their music.

1/10/13
After having six weeks to decide what music we would use to create our music video, we have finally decided what to use. Our original plan to use music by My Chemical Romance didn't exactly wok out when they didn't respond to te email that we had sent them. So now our plan was to find music from either Unsigned.com or SoundCloud and we think that we have found the right music that we could use for our music video. Now all we need to do is email this band and hope that they give us a reply. The song that we have decided to use is:

Superman by Goldfinger 

Blog Post 4: Finding the right music

Now me and my partner Connor will need to research different websites where we can obtain non-copyright music. There are several websites whic we can use such as Youtube, MySpace and Unsigned.com. These are the most likely places where there are going to be unsigned singers.


Websites such as Youtube will have some unsigned artists that will be willing to part their music to us so that their songs can gain a bit of publicity although with Youtube the unsigned artists may be hard to locate as most songs on the website are copyrighted which can be seen in the information part of the video so that all of the users can see whether or not the song is copyrighted.





MySpace is an older version of Faebook where unsugned artists used to use to get more publicity. Although the website can now be seen as outdated and no longer used, there maystill be some unsigned artists who use the website to gain publicity. Though now they will most probably use other websites suchas Twitter to gain more followers and fans of their music, which most artists now use..Social networking sites aregenerally areas where if people have a new idea or an upcoming thing then they can get followers adnd other people to join the idea.

This is a website for up and coming bands and singers who are hoping to get signed by a big label someday. These people generally arent bothered if others use their work in yours as long as you dont take it for your own. These bands music is normally not coprighted so it is free to use for the general public.

Blog Post 3: What is Copyright?

While me and my partner Connor are making our music video, we will have to consider  about the music that we are going to be using. Since te music is probably going to be coming from the inernet we will have to worry about the copyrught laws which some companies have put into place so that we can avoid plagiarism.

Copyright is guaranteeing that the poduct that you create will not be recreated or used without your permission if you own the rights to the product. This is generally the case for movies, and song writers who do not want other people stealing their ideas and song words. If someone does break the protection of copyright then they could be sued and then have to pay a fine. This needs to be closely checked by me and my partner Connor that we have not violated any copyrights agreements as either we or the school can be sued. This is also the case on Youtube as they have a complex system which they check when you upload your video to their website in case the music that you have included in the video is copyrighted in which you can
not post it on the website and it will be removed.

In order to stop worrying about the copyright law, we will have to look for unsigned artists on te internet as they have not been signed by big labels so they will not mind us using their music as it is a lot more likely that by us using their music they will gain publicity on the internet and their music will most probably been heard by a much bigger fan base. In mine and Connors wok we have decided to use the music of My Chemical Romance but as they have ben split we will need to contact them by email to ask if we have permission to use their song in our work just so that we can avoid any copyight issues with them we are going to ask first.
Copyright is very essential for the movies and music business because them people will not be able to recreate the fork of other people and then be able to make a profit from it as it will then be unfair for the original creator of the work. But although people are trying their best to prevent the duplication of movies and songs there are still people who are able to create copies f movies and song through the internet.

Blog Post 2: My Favourite Music Video

My favourite music video wold have to be Clocks by Coldplay because i believe that the song is ery calming and has a variety of instruments that are played throughout the song. The tempo is also increased and decreased througout the song which makes it calming and also makes it a lot faster at certain times. The band has been making loads of songs for years but i just think that this song is one of my favourites as it is a soothing song mainly beause of the main singers once seems to be very droning  and soothing. The genre of the song is seen to be rock music because of the main instruments that are featured in the song. Though the genre of this song can be quite confusing because the instruments that are used are also used in songs such as R&B, indie, Punk etc. The song is really popular since the band is as well and it is one of their most known labels. The song is especially famous in Mexico, America and Italy. The popularity of the song on Youtube has reached up to 20 million  views which is seen to e one of the top songs on Youtube which shows its popularity. Seeing as it is a more Rock video all of the usual instruments that you think would be used in the video are. They are generally a Bass, Lead Guitar, Singer and Drums. These are all of the basic instruments that are used to create a rock band. I believe that the song definitely conveys the message that time is passing by which is actually the title of the song 'Clocks' as it means that time is passing by which is exactly what clocks are used forl to tell time.

Blog Post 1: Brief

For my media A2 coursework i have been asked to produce and promote a music video that needs to be up to five minutes long. This will need to be created either one my own or with a group of up to four people. I have decided that i will group up with my friend Connor as i believe that we are a great pair and can get lots of work done. We will then need to make a digipak (Six Panels) which will be needed fr when i is released onto CD. We will also ned to create a agazine advertisement so that we can publicise our CD  when it is released. After we ave produced ad promoted the CD, we will need to make a critical evaluation about the advertisements and the actual CD product about what we thought we could have done better when we were actually making the files in the CD.