Final Evaluation

How our music video utilises forms and conventions of the medium and the genre

The song we chose to do was "Dog Days are Over" by Florence and the Machines. The genre of this song was a pop song. Before we decided on this genre and song, we observed various different types of music videos within different genres. And we decided as a group that we would be most comfortable doing a pop genre music video. Good examples of pop videos that we looked at were, "All Time Low"- The Wanted, "You Belong To Me"- Taylor Swift, "Missing You"- The Saturdays. This research allowed us as a group to identify the general conventions within a pop music video. We learnt that Pop music videos have a bit of everything. Most are performance based and narrative based, where the lyric to visual relationship is strong. But then there are a few conceptial pop music videos. Main culprit for these videos would be somebody like Lady GaGa. From this research it gave us a further understanding of what we can do as a group to enhance our own music video and make it look professional and realistic.

Our music video "Dog Days Are Over" we feel that it is a modern day music video, as we tried to capture and integrate typical issues in today's modern society (Our issue being teenage pregnancy).



Some conventions we have used is the combination of color visuals. We have used black and white to signify to the audience that there flashback scenes in the music video, as these are used a lot on music videos now, we decided to use these scenes to tell the narrative section of our music video. Then the other mixture of color has been used for the performance section, as it makes the footage looks visually interesting and also adds more understanding to the music video as it separates the narrative and performance. This follows the general conventions of a music video because it includes a mixture of color visuals to create interesting visuals. The black and white flashback scenes suggests to the audience that her life is falling apart and also the lyrics "Dog Days Are Over" can be decoded by the audience meaning that the bad times are over. So these lyrics aid the visuals to connote to the audience that her life turning bad.


There are various other conventions of a music video we have used, such as the main character being the singer, this song is a solo sung by a female, and our music video follows this convention as she is going through her life and not through the eyes of somebody else, this makes the relationship of the music video to the audience more personal and more realistic, as the music video is all about her. Another convention we have used is authentic lip-synching, this is seen 95% of the time in music videos, this makes the music video look more authentic and professional and then you can also see the emotion that the performer gives to the audience from singing. We feel the mise-en-scene we have used reflects the mood of the music as most of the costuming we use are bright colors, this is to signify to the audience, that she is a pure, young sweetheart and doesn't give the impression that she is a rebellious character. Linking back to before we have used the lots of cross cutting and montage editing to tell the story and let the audience know in a couple of minutes the whole story of what is happening. We also feel the editing fits the pace of our song, we used a variety of length shots to fit the song, because the tempo of this song changes a lot of the time. Our video is a pop genre, and to an certain extent there is no structure to what we can include in a pop video. Where as a hip hop video you would expect a urban background, rapping lyrics etc. Where as in our music video, it gave us an opportunity to experiment with a lot of the different things, one of the conceptual scenes we have used, is the stock motion animation from the toys, and the green screen in which we have used. This gave us an opportunity also to experiment with a lot of different camera shots such as the pan shots, long shots, low angles, high angles etc. This made our music video more interesting by not repeating the same variety of camera shots.



Andrew Goodwin suggested six points in which shows conventions of music videos. The first point is the music video demonstrates the genre characteristics, we feel we have captured this, by using a performance and narrative sections in the music video. The second point suggests that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals again linking back to earlier, "Dog Days Are Over" suggesting that bad times are over, and obviously the end shot of our music video is that she is pregnant and good times are ahead, so there is a lyric and visual relationship. The third point is similar to the second, that the music itself relates the visuals, We feel our music does, as we follow the pace of the song with the editing, and also the music is in a minor key, and we feel that our video reflects the sad mood. The fourth point of Goodwin's theory is that we meet the demands of the record label, we have done this by promoting the artist, by making her look stunning, using lots of close ups and make her look authentic and professional, which appeals to the audience. The fifth feature is that we have intertextual reference, I feel we have included some of this aspect, as the film "Juno" inspired us to create a video which brings up the topic of teenage pregnancy. The last point is that our artist as a voyeuristic image and I feel we have captured this by, giving our artists a variety of costumes, which look sometimes odd and sometimes normal, but we feel this makes her unique and stand out from the crowd. The other conventions that we have used, is using lots and lots of close ups of our star in order to show off our pop star and make her look appealing to the audience. Also singing directly to the camera, this is so that the music video looks legitimate to the audience.

How our music video utilizes forms and conventions of the medium and genre. on Prezi

How We Used Media Technologies In Research, Construction, Planning And The Evaluation Stages

We used a different varieties of media technology in the creation and the progression of our media product. Some of the technologies that we used were the internet, final cut express, adobe photoshop, Microsoft publisher, and the sony handheld cameras.



The internet was probably the media technology that we used the most and was probably the most significant and vital as this was the primary source of research for us as a group, and gave us critical ideas in order for us to move further with our project. The research we had to do was to look into other music video directors, and utilizing their ideas and trying to imbed them into our music video. Also we used youtube.com to study and research other music videos similar to our genre, to help us note the general conventions which are used. Also we used the codes and imbedded them onto our blog, to help us further analyze these music videos.

The programs in which we used the most to create our ancillary texts and our digital advertisement pack, was Microsoft publisher and Adobe photoshop. To create the template and draft we used publisher because we knew how to utilize the software and make them to the best of our ability, then we used Adobe photoshop to brush up the products and make it look professional.

The main piece of editing software we used was Final Cut Express, this was a vital piece of software in order to put our music video together. It gave us a variety of tools and editing techniques in which we can use, such as cross dissolves, green screen, stock motion animation. Stock motion animation are still images combined to look like a video sequence and using this software helped make our music video look professional. We also used color corrector and black and white images, this made our music video look more professional. Final Cut Express we feel was a great piece of software and helped us greatly.

When it came to filming our music video, we used sony handheld cameras, the reason why we used these as they were high quality resolution cameras and they were easily accessible and very easy to carry around. We used a tripod in order to help us film our video. This aided the camera to look steady and aid in the resting of camera shots, making the music video look more professional. Also the digital camera allows instant playback for us to check as a group the footage, this is so that we can decided on the spot what we need to re-film.

And the last piece of media technology that we used was blogger.com, this was important as we needed this website in order to upload our media evidence, research and work. Blogger was also a good research tool, as it gave us the opportunity to analyze other peoples work.

How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product And Ancillary Texts

To create our Digipak cover and adverts we used a variety of different software in order to do it, we used Microsoft publisher at first and then we edited and finished it up using Adobe Photoshop. The reason why we did this is that none of us had real experience using Photoshop, so we created the basics using the publisher software and once we had done this, we used the photoshop elements and features in order to make our ancillary texts look professional.

Our Digipak title is called "The Beginning", the reason why we called it this is because it signifies to the audience that she is a new act and performer in the music industry. And we also feel that this title relates to the image of the pop star on the Digipak, it is a high contrast picture, with lots of bright lighting. I feel the bright lighting signifies that a new beginning, an obvious example of this case scenario, would be the image of heaven. Also the facial expression of our pop star is that she looks really focused, and this could be decoded by the audience, that she is ready to break free into the music industry and become a star. As a group we stumbled across this idea, we took a lot of different photos of Hannah to see what would look good on a Digipak covers that are being sold in shops.

Our advert uses a variety of different features to try and catch the audiences attention and persuading them to buy the album, we have used the ideas of tour dates, this is a great advertising opportunity to try and persuade people to come and watch our pop star. We also used screenshots of the music video on the advert to signify to the audience which style of genre we are, and to show that our music video looks professional and an idea of what it is about.

We feel our Digipak design and advert meets the style of our genre, which is pop and we feel this is done in various ways. Our cover and advert look very positive and happy, which is the general convention of the pop genre, as pop is intended to target the majority of a young audience and they would expect to see positive images. We have shown this positive image in our ancillary texts in various ways, for example, the clothes in which our pop star is wearing they are white and bright, which is related to light and happiness. Also we have given Hannah an urban image on the back of the CD cover, which is a modern stereotypical image of a teen pop star in the modern society of today, an example of a type of pop star today would be "Pixie Lott".
Our advert would be placed in a magazine like "Smash Hits", which is a pop magazine which is targeted for the younger audience, and this would be a perfect magazine for us to advertise.

In our products we have emphasized the high contrast and white light, this we feel is reflected in the lyrics and our music video, from going to a bad place to somewhere happy an positive.

We have tried to appeal to the audience according to the "Uses of Gratification Theory". We offer the gratification identity because this is a general typical scenario of modern society, teenage pregnancy, so this is something that some of the audience can relate to . And maybe some people can learn from and maybe get advise on if ever in the situation. So our music video educates the audience.


How audience feedback has helped up improve our final media production?

In order to improve our media production we had to obtain various audience feedback in order for us to know as group what improvements and adjustments can be made. We used questionnaires and basic focus groups to find out what our intended audiences preferred genre of music. Then once we had finished our music video we created another focus group to get final feedback on our product.

For our original audience research as said previously we said, we used questionnaires, from this we asked what the preferred type of genre of music is for our intended age group, and what conventions they would expect to see. From feedback we found out that the preferred genre of music is pop and indie. We was pleased when we found this out as pop music is the genre we chose. We also found out that the audience doesn't really have a specific preference for what type of music video it is (i.e narrative, conceptual and performance based). So we tried to implement all three of these into our music video and tried to make our music video as interesting as possible by using a variety of shots, fast paced editing and all of Andrew Goodwin's media theory of the six key music video features.

We also obtained more feedback after we made a first draft rough cut of our music video, and this is just to basically learn about the strengths and weaknesses of our product and what are the main points to consider when improving our video, and they were that the story line didn't necessarily make perfect sense. So our main objective was making it clearer for the audience. Also to improve basic things like lip-synching and some basic continuity editing needed to be addressed. Also from this feedback it enabled us to realize what scenes needed to be taken out of our final product.

After we completed our final music video we created another focus group and asked them a series of questions about our music video.

The way in which we done our audience research about our music video, is by filming a focus group.
And We asked them a series of questions, which are as follows:



1. Did you like our music video and why?, also did you understand the story line and the moral behind it?

http://cbsca2mediagroup2.blogspot.com/2010/12/final-evaluation-part-1.html

2. Did you think our music video had a conventional story line?

http://cbsca2mediagroup2.blogspot.com/2010/12/final-evaluation-part-2.html

3. What did you think of the editing in our music video?

http://cbsca2mediagroup2.blogspot.com/2010/12/final-evaluation-part-3.html

4. What improvements can be made in our music video and did you generally like it, also what did you think of our the editing?

http://cbsca2mediagroup2.blogspot.com/2010/12/final-evaluation-part-4.html

In general the audience feedback has been influential in the process of our music video.


This Prezi document shows a general summary of the key points made within our evaluation

Summary Of Evaluation on Prezi

Audience Feedback, Question Four

The final part to our media focus group.


4. What improvements can be made in our music video and did you generally like it, also what did you think of our the editing?

Audience Feedback, Question Three

The 3rd part to our music video focus group.


3. What did you think of the editing in our music video?

Audience Feedback, Question Two

This is the second question to our media focus group


2. Did you think our music video had a conventional story line?

Audience Feedback, Question One

This is the first part of our second focus group, where the group of media students describe their thoughts on our music

1. Did you like our music video and why?, also did you understand the story line and the moral behind it?




video.

Final Ancillary Texts: DigiPack and Magazine Advert

DigiPack Front




DigiPack Back




Magazine Advert

Ancillary Text; DigiPak Design Draft

This is our first draft of the Digipak design. As you can see we have used photos of Hannah on the front cover and on the back cover to promote the album. The software we used to create this was Microsoft Publisher.

This is a draft drawings of our front cover and back of the Digipack, these are some of the ideas in which we are trying to incorporate in our Digipak.






This is our first draft of the front cover of our Digipak, as you can see it is generally very plain, but we feel that it works well. We used a close up of Hannah as she is very photogenic and promotes the album in a positive way .



This is the first draft of the back of our Digipak, as you can see we have used a urban image of Hannah standing against the wall, the reason why we have used this as it signifies to the audience that she is a young artist, which might apeal to the younger audience. We have used graffiti style writing of the songs, because it fits in with the brick wall in the background, this may also symbolize that our artist is a bit rebellious in some ways. We will get feedback shortly and continue to create our Digipak.

Ancillary Text: Magazine Advert Draft

This is our second digital media product we have created. In creating this we have tried to use the same house style as the Digipak, using the white and red colors. The red looks strong and eye catching against the white background, so we have used this as the text, this is so that it looks most appealing and attractive for the audience to read.

This is a draft drawn version of the advert, in which again we are trying to incorporate in our ancillary texts.


We have used the general conventions of a traditional advert, which includes a picture of the Digipak, this is to enable the audience to know what the album looks like. We have used a big title and hyperbolic text to attain the audience . Also we have used tour dates and an information help line to make our advert look more professional. We have used a large picture of Hannah as the central image of the advert, this is to immediately inform the audience of the artist we are trying to promote.

We created our on Adobe Photoshop, we used this software because Luke had previous experience last year using this software, when he had to create his magazine.
HERE
We feel that our advert is very professional and we are happy with the quality that has been produced.

Final Music Video Directors Commentary

This is directors commentary in our music video.

Final Music Video

This is our final music video.

Editing Process

The editing process of our music video has been difficult, as none of us would see editing as one of our key strengths when coming to media production. Stuart has taken a lead role in order to edit our music video, however we have all taken turns within the group to contribute.

On our first attempt at editing, we gathered feedback and was told that our music video did not look like a music video, and instead looked more like a sequence and that some of the shots were too slow. So we took this into account and made changes to our music video.

On our second attempt at editing, we got some more feedback and looked to have made a good improvement on our media product. We filmed different flashback sequences and imbedded them in our music video, and included some more performance based camera shots in our music video. This is so it looks more like a music video, being half performance based and half narritive based.

On our third attempt at editing, we got advice and help from a professional director and he gave us ideas in order to improve our video. I think we need to make the video more sharp and a faster tempo, and also cut out some of the stock motion animation as it didn't make much sense.

Editing Techniques We have used in our media video.

In our media video we have used a variety of editing techniques in which we have incorporated in our video.

Green screen: We have used a lot of green screening in our music video, this is so that we can film Hannah and put stuff over the the top of her, this worked in our advantage as it gave us the idea to do something very conceptual.

Stock Motion Animation: We have used stock motion animation in our music video, we have used toys and made them move shot by shot, we had to be very careful when editing this as this could be difficult to film and edit, but we feel that our stock motion animation is good.

Black and White: We have used black and white color, to signify the audience that there are flashback scenes, in our music video. So this illustrates to the audience that there is a story within our music video.

Respresentation of People In The Music Video

In our music video, representation of people is an important aspect. As a stereotypical representation of teenage pregnancy is the general theme in our music video. We feel that the stereotypical view of teenage pregnancy is that they are generally treated as an outcast and seen as being left out from the crowd.

We have tried to capture this representation in various scenes of our music video. Firstly we have done a falling out with her boyfriend, as because being pregnant at such a young age, breaking the news to the boyfriend most of the time seems to end in rage and heartache and them leaving the pregnant teen on her own.

We have also done a scene of the teen arguing with parents and the parents seeing her as a disappointment and also we have filmed a scene of the teen having a confrontation with a teacher, it results in the teen getting an assignment with a bad grade on and the teacher telling the teen off. We feel education is definitely an aspect of teenage pregnancy which is affected negatively during pregnancy.

Also we have done a scene during school where she is looked at differently by all the other students and seen as an outcast and not a part of the school community. We have captured this by the teen walking down a corridor and the students acting rather ignorant and not treating her with respect.

This is our general theme in representation of our teenage pregnancy.


Whilst doing this we have also shown a representation of young people. Young people are stereotypically seen as hooligans and disrespectful, although us as a group disagree with this modern society representation, We felt that we would include it anyway because it shows how difficult it is for the pregnant teen to cope with everyday life.

Locations List

During the filming of our music video, we had to use various locations in order to add variety to our video.

The Locations we used are a school environment, we used this to film some of the flashback scenes in our video.


We used a field to suggest to the audience that Hannah is confused.



We also used her house, to show some of the arguments between her boyfriend.



And lastly we used a clinic, to show where Hannah is pregnant.

Construction of Mise-en-scene

In the first and last shot we are going to have Hannah in front of a white screen. She is going to wear a white t-shirt so that she blends in with the background. This represents her as being pure. This will contrast with her bright ginger hair which signifies that she is different and stands out in her own way.

During another part of the video she is walking down streets with the green screen background. She is going to be wearing different clothes to the stereotypical lower class pregnant teenager that she would be stereotyped as. This will make it harder for the audience to recognize she is pregnant until the end of the video. She will wear middle class clothes to suggest that she does well in school, has a good set of friends and has had a good upbringing. In this shot her clothes will be bright, colourful and happy which will signify that she is on her way to happiness.
In the shots where she is arguing with her parents, boyfriend or friends and at other parts of the video which are different from the green-screen shot, Hannah will be wearing different sets of clothes to connote her feelings. As she will be upset her clothes will be duller than the other shots, making her appear a bit run-down. The scenes will be dark and we might put a blue/green hue to show that the feeling is cold.

Shooting Schedule

In our music video the shooting schedule has been difficult to figure out, as we have limited access to Hannah and when we all have free lessons.

Today (14th February) we made our first attempt to film the opening and other scenes for the music video for Florence and the Machines Dog Days,

We used a Drama studio, with lighting effects and a white background, we also used to fog machine to add an effect to the room and camera. We placed the lead singer in front of the white background wearing a white dress to signify her purity, when in reality she is pregnant and she is a teenager.

We managed to to film most of the first bit in good order, but it was quite hard to find a decent camera shot to match the lyrics but we found some shots, and effects, after which we returned to the MAC room to edit the footage that was filmed.


Today (18th September) Today we filmed our stock animation. We used toys and ear buds as drums and tried simulating the toys hitting the drums. We used the green screen in order to pull this animation off, We did this by taking pictures frame by frame and putting it together as a sequence. This we feel was very effective and will be included in our music video.

Today (20th February)
We have filmed flashbacks scenes this is to give the audience a sense of Hannah's past and how everything falling apart for her. We filmed her falling out with her teacher, her boyfriend and parents. The scene with Hannah falling out with her teacher is a conversation between her and a teacher, and basically Hannah is getting told off and gets a piece of paper with a fail grade on. She scrunches the paper up, this could be seen as a representation of her life being screwed up.

The next scene is Hannah falling out with her parents, and her boyfriend, This again signifies to the audience that the audience that her life is falling apart and the audience doesn't know why.


Today (28th February)

Today, we didn't film a lot of footage, but we filmed some background footage to put into our video. Also we filmed some more shots of Hannah on the white screen, singing. We did this to fill in some of the blanks in our music video.


Today (04th March)

Today we made some serious progress in the filming of our music video, we filmed some of the blanks in our music video, this being the pregnant scenes, and we filmed some more performance based shots of Hannah in front of the white screen. This we feel as a group went very well, as we have filmed about 90% of our footage now and we have a lot of extra footage, and maybe we can incorporate some of it in the rest of our video.


Today ( 12th March)

This is the last filming session today, as we have now filmed all the footage in our video. It was snowing today, so we thought as a group we would take advantage of this and film some various shots in the snow, this is also to signify to the audience, the time that has gone, now we have finished all our filming and we are going to edit and write our final evaluation.

Storyboards

These are our storyboards, they are not necessarily in detail, but they show a general overview of the the sequence of our media video.

Equipment List and People Involved and Props List

This is a list of all equipment that we will need to use in order to create our music video.

Camera x2
Green Screen
Tripod
Car ( Move to different location)
Track
Dolly
Money
Lyrics
Storyboards
Shooting Schedule


In our music video, we have decided not to use in particular many people. The main character will be Hannah Smith and she will be in the majority of our music video, and the reason why we chose her is because she is very photogenic and looks right for the part in our music video.


Props List

Pregnancy Bump
Toys
Mcdonalds Happy Meal Toys
Stuffed Animals
Make Up
White Costume

Media Theory Around Music Videos- Andrew Goodwin's Key Features

In decoding and analysing a music video, there are various conventions, genre signifiers and other different features that makes a music video successful. Andrew Goodwin suggests that there are six different key features or rules even, that are rarely broken for a music video to achieve success.

The first key feature is that they have genre characteristics/signifiers, and by this I mean what the audience would expect to find in a specific genre. For example in a love song, you would expect to find a narrative of a relationship, or if it was heavey metal you would expect it to be performanced based and in a concert. The second key feature is that the lyrics have a relationship with the visuals, this means that what is being sung corresponds to what is being shown in the music video. An example of this would be the song "The worlds greatest" by R Kelly, lyrics from the song are "I'm that little bit of hope when my backs against the ropes", the music video is set in a boxing ring, and that consists of ropes and boxers being pushed up against the ropes is something you would see in a match and as you can see there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. Similar to the second key feature, Goodwin suggests the music itself has a relationship with the visuals. So for example if the music was in a major key and sounded positive and happy, you would expect to see bright colours, sunshine, all general signifiers off happiness.

The main purpose of music videos is for record/label companies to promote their artist, the fourth feature is creating a visual style. Generally there will be a lot of close up shots of the band/artist, this gives the audience a closer view of who they are listening to and a better feel for what their opinion is of the artist. The artists will try and develop a motif for example, Westlife always wear suits and this suggests what type of performers they are. Similar to this, the fifth key feature is voyeuristic images, this is a way for the artist to stand out from the crowd and be unique. For example, Lady GaGa, as most of her music videos are very bizzarre but she is well remembered by the audience and is very popular as she is very unique in what she does. The last key feature that Goodwin describes is the intertextual reference, this could be done from different sources of media, such as films, tv programmes etc. An example of this would be "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, where the main narrative is based on Romeo and Juliet the play.

Target Audience

The target audience is a very important aspect to think about when creating a music video. When creating a music video you have to think about who your target audience is and whether you think your music video will engage the target audience.

I think that the target audience of our music video, is quite easy to classify. Generally we feel that our target audience would predominately be teenagers for various reasons.

Age- Our music video will relate a lot to teenage issues in the modern society of today. 14-24 Would be the predominate age audience we would be hoping to engage. As pregnancy and being lost and confused is seen a common theme in this age audience.

Gender- We feel the predominate gender would be female, as pregnancy can be seen to dominate a female mentality more than it would a males. The worrying of enduring pregnancy and the effects that has rather than just the act of "getting pregnant". We feel females would be more engaged than males because women can relate and identify themselves with the music video. (Uses of gratification theory)

Occupation- We feel that the occupation that our target audience would be predominately students as the theme is teenage pregnancy and finding your place in the world, and these are issues teenagers have to go through and this age range are still generally students in 6th form or university. Also the target audience could be pregnant females or females as it would interest them. However due to the artist we have decided to use, her song target audience would be studetns and young adults, based on lyrics and performance, so we might corss over into the mid 20's age range, due to the song itself.

We feel that the target audience would be close to the bottom of the social demographic ladder as it's about teenagers being pregnant and they don't have a lot of money and support so this relates to the target audience.

Media Theory Around Music Videos- Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall developed a theory of encoding and decoding. He argued that there were two processes used in order to get a message accross to the audience. Encoding is the process of the media putting messages into the media text for example a music video. Decoding is the process of the audience understanding and forming a meaning from the text. There are three different ways to form this type of meaning.

Oppositional Reading- This is when the audience disagree or reject the media text completely.
Negotiated Reading- The audience accepts the media text given but not in the way that it is shown.
Dominent/Preferred Reading- This is the message the media want us to have of a media text.

Intertextuality

The basic and general definition of intertextuality is gaining ideas from other media texts and using the foundations of those ideas within your own text. An example of this would be trying to re-create a famous movie scene in a music video. There is a reason why intertextuality may be used by different music video directors. Various directors are film school graduates so they use cinema as a starting point to help direct. There are different types of visual referencing often used in music videos, such as fashion, cinema and photography.

Madonna's "Material Girl" is a prime example of intertextuality, she uses a scene from the film "Gentlemen prefer blondes" and in her music video she tries to recreate a similar scenario. Not only movies are used, television is also a point of referece too. An example of this would be the Beastie Boys spoof cop show title sequences for sabbotage.

Video game intertextuality is becoming a way to attract the younger target audience as video games are very popular in today's modern era. An example of video game intertextuality is the Red Hot Chilli Peppers' "Californication". Personally this is one of my favourite music videos, as I find it very interesting and it was one of the first music videos to reference video games.

Permission Request to Island Records

When deciding our music video, we also had to take into account that we had to contact the record label of our selected song.
We sent an email requesting permission to use Florence and the Machines Dog Days music as the track for our music video, we never recieved a reply but we have made an attempt to contact the record company.

Lyrics- Dog Days: Florence and the Machines

happiness, hit her like a train on a track (Close up, Green Screen)
Coming towards her, stuck still no turning back (Close up, Green Screen)
She hid around corners and she hid under beds (Close up, Green Screen)
She killed it with kisses and from it she fled (Medium shot, Green Screen)
With every bubble she sank with a drink (Medium shot, Green Screen)
and washed it away down the kitchen sink (Canteen, behind Hannah)

The dog days are over (Purple floor, close up)
The dog days are done (Purple floor, close up)
The horses are coming so you better run (Snow Spin

Run fast for your mother run fast for your father (Field run)
Run for your children and your sisters and brothers (canteen, sit)
Leave all your love and your loving behind you (field run)
Can’t carry it with you if you want to survive (field run)

The dog days are over (corridor)
the dog days are done (snow sing)
Can’t you hear the horses (teacher shouting, field run)
Cuz here they come (leave room)

And I never wanted anything from you (walk along corridor/field pan)
Except everything you had (walk along corridor/field pan)
and what was left after that too. oh. (green screen, looking back at life)

Happiness it hurt like a bullet in the mind (boyfriend break up)
Struck from a great height (green screen, boyfriend break up)
by someone who should know better than that (green screen, boyfriend break up)

The dog days are over (green screen, boyfriend break up)
The dog days are gone (pills)
can you hear the horses (pills)
Cuz here they come (pills)

Run fast for your mother and fast for your father (singing, snow background)
Run for your children for your sisters and brothers (field pan, sickness)
Leave all your love and your loving behind you (field pan, sickness)
Can’t carry it with you if you want to survive (field pan, sickness)

The dog days are over (field pan, sickness)
The dog days are gone (field pan, sickness)
Can you hear the horses because here they come (go in room to see baby bump, singing)

The dog days are over (singing in mirror)
The dog days are gone (singing in mirror)
Can you hear the horses because here they come (singing, snow background and final bump shot)

Florence and the Machine Second Music Video

Florence re-released the song dog days in 2010 after it original release date in 2008, when she did this she made a new music video

Florence and the Machine: Original music video

this is the original music video that was made for the song "Dog Days are Over"

The Song Idea

We have all had a discussion about the general theme in our music video. We all come to agreement that "Dog Days are over" can mean that the bad days are over, so we think that a good idea was to use the theme of teen pregnancy as this is a issue in modern society. Our idea is all performance based, narrative based and conceptual. The performance based is going to be used on the white screen, this is to show emotion. Our narrative is going to be a variety of different things, i.e argument with parents and being lonely and a outcast. The conceptual part of the music video is the stock animation of toys. This is to signify to the audience that perhaps she is crazy, however she is pregnant and toys are related to children or in other words pregnancy.

Song Choices

1. This ain't a love song- Scouting for Girls
2. Baby- Justin Bieber
3. Eeenie Meenie- Justin Bieber/Sean Kingston
4. Dog Days are over- Florence and the machines
5. The scientist- Coldplay
6. All Time Low- The Wanted
7. She Said- Plan B


These were some of our original song ideas, after a long discussion as a team we decided to go with Dog Days by Florence and the Machine, as we felt this was the best opportunity to make a creative music video.

Focus Group

We have created a focus group based on our questionnaire to give us some general ideas for our music video.

Questionnaire

We have created a questionnaire in order for us to research and get some ideas of our music video.
Questionnaire of a Music Video


Do you listen to a lot of music?

Yes No

Do you watch a lot of music videos?

Yes No

What type of music videos do you like? (eg comedy)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....


What is your favourite music video and why?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………


We are planning to do the music video Dog Days by Florence and the Machines.


Do you like this song?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....

The ideas we have in this song is to use the themes of family, pregnancy, teenage issues and being confused and lost.

Do you think these themes can be related to the lyrics of the song, and do you have any other ideas in which we can include in our music video.

…………………………........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Thank you for filling our questionnaire please can you return this to Luke, Luke, Stuart and Grant.


UPDATED

We asked ten people to fill out our questionnaire and the results we got back were very similar. I think that alot of people actually expect to see dogs in the song "the dog days are over" when actually we interpreted that the song meant the bad days are over, Dog as in down. but what everyone did say is that the liked the song, but expected to see things such as choreography. Some favourtie music videos that came up, were Telephone by lady Gaga, and several different Michael Jackson videos.

Music Video Analysis- All Time Low (The Wanted)

Finally i have chosen to analyse The Wanted - All time Low. I have picked predominately female pop songs, from The Saturdays, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, so to get a male perspective music video, from a new boyband.


The music video is very different from what i have already analysed, because like The Saturdays obviously there are more than one person singing the song, so the video needs to identify the solos, but also show the band as a united group or "figure". The video starts smokey and eerie, which kind of works for the string instrument beginning to the song, and actually its filmed in a warehouse studio, that is not made to look anything different other than slightly more abused "abandoned". Something that is quite noticeable throughout the clip is the "poses" the band pull whilst singing their solo's, its very stereotypical for a boy band to stand and pose "sexily" at the camera.

After the first verse and the shared vocals and close ups, the song begins to pick up pace and then the camera movements become faster, it feels very disorientating there is also a light strobe that obscures some of the view, so you can only see their faces in the light, making the video seem almost surreal.

what has to be done as what i touched on at the beginning is to show the band together, and even though it is sparse in this video, there has to be to some extent some choreography. The band has to show of there solo abilities, not only for their career, but for their fans, (fans favorite) but it also has to be shown together as the band needs to look united as one.

As the song picks up pace the the video gets faster and faster, the camera shots are quicker, there are more close ups that are close together in time. they also use red flares which are interesting, because red is used at very different times and for very different reasons, such as Lust, Frustration, anger and evil, for this particular part of the video i think the red flares signify the frustration.

Something that is clear throughout the video is its a mix of them standing/dancing/moving and miming to the song, from moving around as though they are just moving to the music.

Finally the video appears to end on a similar if not the same shot that it started with, but is is noticeably clearer to see, this shows that whatever they were singing or were frustrated about has been cleared up.

Music Video Analysis- Telephone (Lady GaGa)

Antoher video that has been chosen is Lady Gaga - Telephone, this is a very unconventional POP music video when POP music is meant to be quite commercial when the whole video length for this particular music video is, 9 minutes and 27 seconds.
Although the full length music video is so long, for the purpose of the comparison between other blogs, i will analyse the whole thing, rather than the shortened down version.

The music video starts with a prison scene, it is supposed to follow on from a previous lady gaga video, with the sotry line being, she is arrested, for murdering her boyfriend, but Beyonce bails her out, and the kill Beyonces wife beater boyfriend and go on the run together. The music video is also very interesting as it incorporates another one of Lady Gaga's songs Papa Gangsta. The video is filmed like that of a film, which a clear narrative , with cloe ups and lots of product placements, for things such as Virgin, with the closeup of the mobile saying "Virgin Mobile".

When the music starts we get lots of close ups of her face as she is singing and the use of special effects to make a ripple, jumping effect as the song sounds like its jumping, the shots then get extended when the dance scene happens, with medium, and long shots, with close ups that pan out to ereveal the choreography and the bacing dancers, we also get still and slow motion shots of gaga, in different stances and positions that match the music, we than get more narrative, as she leaves prison. and we see the other main character "Beyonce". Before Beyonce starts singing we see lots of close ups of the faces and things in the car, this carries on to when beyonce takes her roll, apart from two medium shots that show Beyonce driving the car. After beyonce has finished her lines, we get another narrative, of them walking into a diner, and we get a split screen in thirds, the thrids are beyonce - close up, gaga - full shot and gaga - close up. There is no speech in the diner all speech is written in subtitles. During the second dance sequence there are several different close ups of Gaga, and her dancers with the same, ripple jumping effect used earlier in the video.

when we come towards the conclusion of the video and we have the final dance sequence with lots of choreography featuring both Gaga and Beyonce, there are less close ups apart from the occaisional close up of Gaga and Beyonces face, but then mainly full shots of the dancing and the back up dancers, with the occaisional cuts to the close up faces of people who have died at their hands, and the dance sequence continues. After this scene there are some shtos of the car driving away and also some shots of Gaga dancing in a skin tight leopard print catsuit infront of that car which is named "pussy wagon". interesting for a POP music video there is a video interlude of a news feed, the last we see of Beyonce and Gaga in the song, is them in big dresses with big hats, saying the words to the song, and then the song ends with Beyone and Gaga in the car driving off together. What interesting is that this was a sequal to another song that was sun and written by Gaga and at the end it reads "To be continued" which again is very strange for a POP music video which is supposed to be commercial.

Music Video Analysis- You Belong To Me (Taylor Swift)

Another video i have chosen to analyse is Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me. This is a different kind of pop song to The Saturdays and i think that shows with the video.

The music video starts with an establishing shot of two houses, which then jump cuts into shot reverse shot, repeated of the conversation that the main character is having with the boy next door. The characters are very typical teenage american movie, with the pretty nerdy girl, and the obvious, hot guy. They have a conversation through the paper to suggest that they know each other and are quite good friends. when he closes the curtain, the lead girl turns into a typical teenage girl of the 90's, dancing around her room, singing into the mirror through her hairbrush and trying on different outfits, which we see the boy looking through his window to see her "geeky" dancing and finding it amusing.

We get a jump cut into another scene, where there is a close up of her face and a book, to signify that she is abit geeky and really she enjoys reading her books, the boy from the window sits down, to clarify that indeed they do know eachother. when the girlfriend pulls up in the car its obvious juxtaposition between the girlfriend and the geeky girl, both played by singer "Taylor Swift". We see here that she really likes the boy, as when they kiss she looks away with almost a look of jealousy on her face. When we cut to another scene its also clear that they come from different walks of life, she is on the marching band squad, whereas her "enemy" is captain of the cheerleading squad, further showing how different they are. We get another cut, to another scene when we are back in the bedrooms, and the guy is all dressed ready for what looks like a school dance, and she is dressed in some casual trousers and looks to be studying, where they exchange more notes.

We get the final jump cut of the music video, when we see her entering the school dance, looking amazing, a real cinderella scenario, where the guy leaves the bad girl, and goes for the geeky but really good lookin girl, and to end it off on a happy ever after ending, by showing eachother identical notes that read "I Love You".

The video uses a large amount of close ups, and medium shots, this is to show the emotion of the painful mess that she is stuck in, it also has alot of quick shot and fast shots, which is very odd to have both in the same video.

Music Video Analysis - Missing You (The Saturdays)

I chose to analyse one of The Saturdays music ideos, because personally I am a fan of their music, but also because of the genre of music videos we are looking to create, The Saturdays fit perfectly.
The song i have chosen to analyse is The Saturdays - Missing You.


The video starts with a close up on Frankie, this is while she is singing her solo at the beginning, it carries on into the first verse which allows all the girls to be seen on there own but stick to the stereotypical modes that are carried out by girl bands. Solo for the verses to be shown on there own, and then normally in chorus' and dance sequences they are shown together.

They are all placed in different places in Spain. Frankie is in the woods, Mollie, is riding around on her bike, Una is driving a car, Vanessa is in a location with ruins and old buildings and Rochelle is down at the beach. This is throughout the first verse and parts of the second verse, while the solos are being sung.

Throughout the video there is a large amount of Product placement particularly watches, and about a third of the way through the video which has a close up of a make of watches in different colours by "ICE".

When it gets to the second verse there is a very typical girl band music video scene of a dance routine where they are choreographed to the music and perform to the song (performance based part of the song). This continues until the last verse, which is sung by Rochelle, where the scene changes to the party sequence.

This party sequence was for a different beat of the song, it shoes the band "United" together at a party, they are dancing to their own music but none of them are singing along to the song to suggest that this is a non performance part of the video.

Music Video Analysis- Rabbit Heart (Florence and The Machines)

Rabbit Heart is a single from Florence’s debut album, Lungs and reached 12th in the UK singles chart after being released on 22nd June 2009. After spending fifty weeks in the top 40 it eventually gained its number one position and has since spent thirty two weeks inside the top ten. The genre of this song is classed as indie pop, and may be along the lines of something that we would like to do.

The video is mainly narrative based with Florence singing in a field with a number of performers. A spiritual ritual appears to take place in the video, where Florence and the actors dance, food is thrown from a table to the floor and finally Florence is pushed out into a river in a floating coffin-like box in a way similar to a Biblical story. These spiritual themes relate directly back to the lyrics for instance the line ‘we raise it up, this offering, we raise it up’ as well as the song’s chorus also by the clothes that she wears, it's fairly obvious that this music video is supposed to re-create the biblical time period.
The video starts off with an extreme close up of Florence’s mouth with the rest of her face covered by a piece of cloth. The camera then pans outwards as the cloth is lifted into a medium close up. This draws the audience’s attention to the opening lyrics of the song. Tracking close ups and medium close up’s are regularly used throughout the music video of Florence making her constantly the centre of the audience’s attention. This is a generic convention of music videos because the perofrmance uses the camera to engage the audience to show that she is a star performer. Only one musical instrument from the song appears in the video. A man in a suit playing a harp appears intermittently creating a fairytale like scene fitting in with the lyrics and meaning of the song. One or two other instruments are used simply as props in the video to help the video relate to the meaning of the song. The cutting rhythm of the song is slower than most music videos, but still relatively fast. This combined with the filter used on the camera and the occasional use of the fade transition gives the music video a dated appearance, as if to suggest that the ritual happening on screen used to happen, but no longer takes place. A number of extras appeared in the video, most notably at the end where Florence is carried towards the riverbank and pushed out onto the water. The extras make the "ceremony" look like a joyous occasion as singing and dancing takes place in the background.

Rabbit Heart was one of Florence's first single, so this was an important song for her to create her public image and show to the audience who she is. The video helps to show Florence challenges the general stereotypes of female artists like her that she is not the typical female vocalist sex symbol, but as an artist and performer is passionate about writing interesting with unique videos to accompany them.

Music Industry Research

How are Music Videos made?

There are different ways in which a music video can be created. It could be of an actual recording of the artist in real life settings, animated, or even a recording of the artist/artists over an animated background. The recording of the song from the studio is put over the video.

Main Companies?

There are many different companies in the video industry. The main companies in the market are Viacom, News Corporation, Lions Gate, Time Warner, The Walt Disney Company, Sony, NBC Universal, Heron Communications, The Weinstein Company and Starz Media.

Where can you find Music Videos?

As a result of the introduction of new technology, there are various platforms in which you can view a music video. Television is one platform you could use, tuning into a music channel for example. You can watch music videos using the internet, and you can also now view music videos on modern day phones, either through pre-saved data or by accessing the internet.

What are the purpose of Music Videos?

The purpose of a music video is to promote the artists song. It can help enforce the meaning of the song on the audience if required, helping the audience understand what the song is about. It can have the purpose of simply engaging with the viewer, keeping them interested, and can also be used to make the viewer remember the song.
The business side of music videos is to make money from them. For example, they can be sold to music channels, and also are ways of advertising.

Research Into Influential Music Directors

As a group we decided to research three different music directors, they are Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and David Fincher. These are all very different directors and each use different media features and techniques to make their videos interesting.

Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze was born October 22ed 1969 and he is an american director and producer he is a famous for directing music videos and producing commercials and films.
With fellow producers and directors Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham he co-founded "Directors Label" and this is a variety of DVD's from various famous music directors. Before this he was involved in different parts of the media, he was a magazine producer for "Dirt" and "Homeboy", he was also a photographer for magazines.

Spike Jonze has directed lots of music videos in his career, some of his notable work are...

Wonderboy - Tenacious D (2000)
Get Back - Ludacris (2004)
Flashing Lights - Kanye West (2008)
Weapon of Choice - Fat Boy Slim (2000)
Da Funk - Daft Punk (1997)
Ricky's Theme, Sabbotage, Sure Shot - Beastie Boys (1994)
Drop - The Pharcyde (1996)

These are just some examples of Jonze's work, as you can see he has been directing for a few years and is still at the current moment in time. These are just some examples of the music videos he has directed. Jonze has directed over 50 music videos.

Da Funk - Daft Punk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUIBJ_jYTU)

This music video was directed 13 years ago and it is a very strange, surreal music video. The main genre of this music video is electro, as there is no singing and it has electronic instruments playing. The music video itself also has a comedic connotations embedded with it. A dog acting like a person trying to make a living in the big city. It is funny because it is unrealistic and unique for the audience to see. It keeps the audience engaged and keep watching the music video even if they do not like the song. The dog is walking around in a big city and night time, this is a signifier clubs and night life, which relate back to the actual music. I find this video interesting as it is unique and not a obvious music video to create. This is why I think that Jonze is a interesting music director as he is a unique director and likes to add something different to his music videos.

Drop - The Pharcyde (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co3qMdkucM0)

This music video was directed 14 years ago, and is a very different type of old school hip-hop, it is a unique video and some of the features are rarely seen in all types of music video, let alone hip-hop. Some of the video is in reverse mode and this is a good, feature to keep the audience engaged in the video as it is something not seen a lot today. The artist are singing the lyrics backwords so that it is in sync with the actual music. (Similar to "The scientist" by coldplay). Learning a song backwards is not an easy task to do. So from this you can immediately see the immense effort needed to create this music video.

Without listening to the music the genre is fairly obvious to point out as there are various signifiers and conventions, which represent the hip hop genre. . Throughout the music video there is a tracking shot of the artists, acting and rapping to the camera, this is something generally seen in hip-hop music videos. The setting also helps us decode which type of genre it is, it is a set in a urban location and evidently going to be along the hip-hop/rnb genre. So evidently Jonze put a lot of effort in directing this music video, and I think it is successful and interesting and he follows the generic conventions of the genre to keep the audience engaged



Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry (born May 8, 1963) is a French film, commercial and music video director and an Academy Award-winning screenwriter.

Michel Gondry is probably most famous for his work with music videos but his adverts often stand out as the adverts for Levi and Smirnoff, and out of the music videos i have watched from his my favourtie has to be the Kylie minogue video "Come Into My World" what for me is the imaginative idea of the repition of lots of different kylie's all repeating the same scene over again.



Not only ddoes he do that type of media, he has also directed successful cinema movies which add to his stuatus as one of the most creative and successful directors of his generation. His brother Olivier "Twist" Gondry is also a television commercial and music video director but it is fair to say that he does not have the same recognition as Michel and Michel success is much more substantial.

Michel is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène*. His career took off when he started to create the music videos for the band Oui Oui in which he drummed in, his creative mind caught the attention of rival band Bjork and that is when his directing caeer took off.
*What is used in the scene of theatre or film, to tell the story.

Some of his work includes;

Feature films
Gondry participating with The 1 Second Film art project.

- Human Nature (2001)
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
- The Science of Sleep (2006)

Music videos

- "Open Your Heart" - Mia Doi Todd (2010)
- "Soleil du Soir" - Dick Annegarn (2008)
- "Declare Independence" - Björk (2007) [3]
- "Dance Tonight" - Paul McCartney (2007)
- "Cellphone's Dead" - Beck (2006)
- "Anysound" - The Vines (2006)
- "King of the Game" - Cody ChesnuTT (2006)
- "Heard 'Em Say" (U.S. Version) - Kanye West (2005)
- "Come into My World" - Kylie Minogue (2002)



David Fincher

David Fincher is an American music video director and filmmaker who was born on August 28th 1962. He started making films from the age of 8 with an 8mm camera.

His first job was setting up cameras and undertaking other practical work for John Korty’s Korty Films. In 1980, he was employed by Industrial Light & Magic and worked production team for films such as Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He left Industrial Light & Magic to direct music videos and commercials.

His trademark was the use of lighting in his music videos and films. Fincher’s music videos all have an attitude and impression of their own but still preserve an assured feel that lets you know it was David Fincher’s work.

David Fincher has worked with many musicians such as:
Madonna - "Express Yourself" (1989), "Oh Father" (1989) and "Vogue" (1990)
Michael Jackson - "Who Is It?" (1992)
George Michael - "Freedom" (1990)
He has also worked with bands such as:
Aerosmith - "Janie's Got a Gun" (1989)
The Rolling Stones - "Love Is Strong" (1994)
Nine Inch Nails - "Only" (2005)

He has directed over 50 music videos in his career.

George Michael - Freedom (1990) - (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9WSb5aXLfc)

David Fincher directed the video Freedom by George Michael in 1990. George Michael refused to feature in most of the video because he was trying to distance himself from Sony, which was his record label at the time. So he hired male and female supermodels to lip-sync the words. In the video, there is a shot of a man from the waist down - he walks and he scratches his boxers. His scene goes with the line, "When you shake your ass they notice fast some mistakes were built to last...”


Sony created an image for him to promote his album, “Faith” so in the video it featured the destruction of the three objects from "Faith" that had come to signify Michael's career at that point: his leather jacket (burned), jukebox (exploded) and guitar (exploded).

Categories of a Music Video

There are three different categories of a music video. These are Performance based, narrative, and conceptual.

Performance Based- This is often seen in most music videos, this is footage of the band performing the actual song. This seen a lot in heavy metal, rock genre of songs, where the whole band all play instruments.

Narrative- This is also seen a lot in music videos, it shows a story within the music video. This is seen a lot in love songs, where you see what is happening between the love interests, it is also generally used in all types of music genres.

Conceptual- This is seen the least in music videos, but is very popular in the modern age. The conceptual category of a music video. This is not performance or narrative based, it is something different and strange to the music video. An example of this is Plain White Ts - Hey there delilah. Where lego is used to portray the music video.


Often in music videos more than one of these categories are used in a music video, Sometimes maybe even all three of them.

Analysis of CD Covers.

I have chosen to choose CD covers of artist who i appreciate to be some of my favourite but also some that we would most likely use for our music video.



Immediately what is interesting about the cover of this is that the girls are all wearing the same dresses but are different colours, which to me represents the genre "POP" very clearly, pop is describe as light, fun and colourful, which i what i think The Saturdays are trying to achieve with this CD cover. Pop music is also said to be "commercially recorded music, often oriented towards a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short and simple love songs and utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes". this again is quite obvious, there is nothing to outlandish on the cover which is clear to appeal to the market of popular culture which is very "commercial" and tends to stick away from controversial moves. Something that is also on the cover which is on every CD cover is the name of the artist, this is usualy done in a font that is repeated which is always used for advertisement, this is so that the name of the artist cant be recognised on repitition.



Again i have used another favourite artist of mine, but from a different genre and a completely different style of cover, The cover matches the genre of music which is classified as "alternative Pop Rock" The cover which comes across to me as very dream like, she has her face sideways to the camera, which a set of leather lungs on her chest, which fits with the album name, the birds and flowers in the background further add the dream like feeling that Florence's music does show, so evidently matching with the genre "Alternative" Like i said with The Saturdays, Florence also uses the same font for her bands name on every album, single and piece of merchandise, again for advertising and to make the group more recognisable and able to be picked out.



Finally i have chosen something quite different, i have chosen a singer who is classified as "Indie, Pop/Rock" which leads little to the imagination when it comes to the cover, obviously the cover is very plain, but i think that matches the music, the songs are very stripped down and really listenable, the cover, is his name which is also the name of the album and his animated face on a plain background, showing that really he doesnt have images, and that really the indie music artists, dont play on comercial images to increase the popularity of thier music.