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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
