Planning Artist Image

Planning Editing Styles

Planning Editing Styles

 

Editing is vital within a music video as it allows the final product to flow throughout by creating continuity. By simply putting shots together and adding cuts and transitions, it allows the audience to witness a story being told (narrative), understand a concept and witness an artist perform. Timings of camera shots and transitions in a music video also allow the piece to flow. Therefore, this means the audience can understand the narrative and not be alienated like many would be confused by a diverse music video much like Gondry or Cunningham.

 

My group felt that by subverting the codes and conventions of our chosen genre we could create a more entertaining music video which applied to our target audience. Through the use of slow-paced editing my group will build up tension to emphases the female characters death. This will create an emotion link with the target audience. This will also build the relationship with the audience and the male character. . This will be used in the graveyard scenes where the artist is visiting the grave of his lost loved one. However by subverting too much of the codes and convention could leave our target audience bored. So slow motion editing will only be used in small amounts. Slow-paced editing will also emit a relaxed atmosphere whilst enhancing the meanings and morals embedded within the lyrics. “The sun don’t shine without you” evoking the feeling of pain and therefore applying to the slow motion editing.  Additionally, we aim to employ this editing style as it follows Deep house characteristics as it is simplistic and allows the audience to really absorb what they are seeing as opposed to not understand it and walk away not thinking about what they have witnessed. Slow-paced editing will be in time with the slow beat and the start of the song not subverting the convention in a massive way this will create an enigma for the audience to keep watching as they want to see what happened to the female character.

 

 

My group decided that fast paced editing is the most appropriate technique to employ within our music video due to the conventions of the dance/house. Fast paced editing conforms to the conventions of our chosen genre. This specific genre is known for its fast beats which allow the evoke the feeling of dancing and fun. Therefore taking some of the importance of the lyrics. Therefore my group felt it would be important to reflect this within the editing that we chose to use throughout the music video. It will lead to an increased pace and in turn can create the correct pace of events throughout the narrative. Fast paced editing is also more complex and will lead the audience to have a more exciting and thrilling viewing experience and we hope that this will leave a longer lasting impression. This editing style we will use in the flashbacks of the relationships in order to give a sense that it is almost their life together flashing before his eyes, as well as representing how quickly it is all over. This will further emphasise the emotions of the loss that the male character is experiencing. This will be relatable through the audience. Furthermore, it will also match the confusion and drama that we wish to create when the car crash happens.  

 

It is clear that editing is a vital element of my group’s music video. Thought the use of contrasting editing styles my group will aim to evoke a number of feelings on the target audience which will intern entertain them. This will boost my group music videos success. Through the use of the editing software Final Cut Pro we will successfully be able to alter the shots visual experience for the audience through a variety of tints and effects to give the best experience for the audience.

 

Planning Cinematography

Planning cinematography

 

What is the purpose of cinematography?

Cinematography is effectively used in a music video so that the audience can see a visual interpretation of the song. Different camera shot create a specific desired effect on the audience in order to appeal to them. These highlights how important this aspect of production is when creating a music video. Cinematography allows the audience to visualise what the artist was thinking when creating the song. Encouraging the audience to draw connation’s from the music video to get an understanding what the artist was thinking when creating their song. Different camera shots/angles are chosen specifically to affect the audience in the artists desired way. Camera shots are important to include within a music video because they give off effects that may make the audience feel emotion, it can also build tension, excitement, suspense, give the feeling that something is about to happen or create power or weakness of characters. For example a high angle shot to show the character got more power. Contrastingly a low angle shot to show characters weakness. Without the crucial role of cinematography, the music video would not exist! Therefore, it must fulfil the dual purpose of entertaining and informing the audience. It is clear that cinematography is very important and is vital my group research this to prefect our own music video.



What cinematography will you include and why?

As cinematography is very important it is vital my group make every shot have a purpose to affect our target audience. This could be to create emotion or create links with the audience. My group’s music video will include mainly fast paced shots. This is conventional to keep with the beat of the song and to help our music video flow with the music.

My group will try to create emotion to entertain our young target audience. To do this we will subvert the deep house conventions by having the female character car crash in slow motion. My group aim for this to create an emotion link with the audience to slow motion prolonging the pain of her death. In addition we will also use slow paced shot in the grave yard to highlight the realism of the female characters death. This will be showed through the use of a low angle shot of the grave reiterating what has happened.  By doing this it will create emotion for the audience and therefore give them more entertainment when watching our music video. This will intern make our music video more successful as the audience where entertained.

In addition to creating emotion my group also wanted spectacular view to keep the audience watching our music video. This will be done through the use high angle shots looking over London. This romantic setting will also reiterate the couples love and happiness. This will also build a link with the audience and therefore create more emotion when the audience find out she dies. These conventional emotional links help to give the audience suspense of what may happen and build tension.

We also aim to show happiness this will be down through a number of shot of the couple’s happiest moments. My group will use fast paced editing to connect with the beat and help the song flow with visuals. The happiness of the couple will be seen through shots such as close ups, long shots, mid shots and over the shoulder shots. We aim to emphases the couples love to the audience building feeling. The scene will be forest walks, cake making, and bed scene. This hopefully will evoke the feeling of love to the audience.



How is your cinematography conventional to your music genre?

My group know the importance of not subverting our music video drastically. These are thing we know our target audience don’t like from our primary and secondary research. We aim to subvert certain aspects. However we aim to keep our music video mainly conventional. This will include:


Cinematography:

                               - Handheld camera work
                               - Rarely any static shots
                               - Large variety of camera shots and angles
                               - Close up of lead singers

Mise-en-scene
                               - Flashing lights
                               - Modern teenage stereotypes (Alcohol, Drugs)
                               - High key lighting
                               - Fun atmosphere

Sound:                   - Upbeat music
                               - Repetitive drum beat
                               - Produced sounds (techno/electronic style)

Editing:                  - Fast paced/ to the beat
                               - A cut to a new shot usually every 1 or 2 seconds
                               - Usually cut to tell a narrative

By following these conventions highlighted by our target audience it will help to engage the audience. And allow them to enjoy their chosen genre the way they enjoy others.

How does it build a relationship with your target audience?

Among many techniques building a relationship with the target audience is vital for the success of a music video. This allows the audience to connect with the music video and therefore understand what the artist was thinking when writing the song. There are many ways to build a relationship with the audience my group done this in many ways. One example of this would be the couples love. This is seen through many shots and evidently increases the impact of the women’s death. The closer the audience feel to the female character the more they relate to the situation, and what it must be like when in that situation. We tried to this in many flash back scenes for example the cake making scene the couple having fun evokes their love, something which many of the audience can relate to. We also aim to use the common stereo type of men to build a relationship with the female audience. It is a common stereo type that men cheat we aim to do this to build a relationship with female audience, this will intern draw them into the storyline. This will later be used in the crash scene.

It is clear that cinematography is very important and something my group have thought about very truly. As to make a successful music video cinematography is vital. My group hope that by extensively researching into this technique we will have a successful music video.

 

 

Major Record Labels

Major record labels

 

Major record labels are large companies within the music industry that may in addition own smaller record labels. The music industry is known to be dominated by three major record labels which include; Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.

Sony Music Entertainment UK is part of one of the largest music and entertainment companies in the world. It has a broad array of local artists and international superstars, as well as a vast catalogue comprising of some of the most important recordings in history. The major record label owns a number of smaller companies including; Arista and J Records. . Arista manages artists such as, Alicia Keys and Avril Lavigne.

A few examples of bands/artists signed to Sony:

• The Tings Tings

• The Clash

• MGMT

• Justin Timberlake
• R.Kelly

 

The EMI Group is a British music company. It is the fourth largest business group and family of record labels, in the recording industry, make it one of the 'big four' record companies. EMI Group also has a major publishing arm- EMI Music Publishing- based in New York City. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but is now wholly owned by Terra Firma Capital Partners.

A few examples of bands/artists signed to EMI:

 

• Whitesnake

• Iron Maiden

• Spice Girls

• Kate Bush

• The Beatles

 

Warner Music Group (WMG) is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, also making one of the big four companies. The current incarnation of the company was formed in 2004 when it was spun off from Time Warner, and as a result, Time Warner no longer retains any ownership. Warner Music Group also has a music publishing arm called Warner/Chappell Music, which is currently one of the world's largest music publishing companies. The Warner Music Group record label also owns smaller companies within the music industry such as; Atlantic and Warner Bros Records. Atlantic manages artists within the music industry like Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars and Wiz Khalifa. Warner Bros Records manages artists including Biffy Clyro, Jason Derulo and The Veronicas. Warner Music Group is owned by Time Warner, the world’s largest media conglomerate which has links with film and entertainment, publishing and television. 

A few examples of bands/artists signed to the Warner Music Group:

• Death Cab For Cutie

• Gnarls Barkley

• Basshunter

• Fleetwood Mac

• Enter Shikari

Universal Music Group (UMG) is the largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry. It is the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations. This major record label also owns a number of smaller companies who manage an array of artists. Some of the smaller companies the Universal Music group own are; Def Jam and Island Records who also manage Jessie J, Drake and Nicki Minaj.

A few examples of bands/artists signed to the Universal Music Group:

1.    Lady Gaga

2.    Gwen Stephani

3.    Keri Hilson

4.    Young Jeezy

5.    Mariah Carey

3.      Do the major labels own smaller companies and which artists do they manage?

 

4.      Are there any links within Media e.g. TV/Film/Magazines Etc?

 

 

Independents

 

 

An independent record label is a music label that operates one or a few music labels. It operates without funding of the organisations of the major record labels. A number of artists and bands begin their music career being signed to an independent record label. Independent labels can be just as successful but operate from a smaller company base. They are traditionally known as offering more ‘organic’ music rather than manufactured mainstream although this is only in opinion.

 

Throughout the UK there are a number of independent record labels some of which include; Rough Trade records, Arcade Fire and The Strokes. All of which are very successful in the UK.  Rough Trade who managed artists such as The Libertines began as a record shop, opened by Geoff Travis in Kensington, in February 1976. It was inspired by what Travis has described as the "community-based environment" of the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, and specialized in garage rock and reggae. The record label was formed two years later in1978 with artists mainly of genres including; punk, indie pop and reggae. Another well known independent record label is warp records which was founded in 1989. Warp Records is known for discovering some of the most enduring artists in electronic music. Warp have managed some of the best music artists and has been very successful not have conglomerate company funding. Some of theses artist are Aphex Twin, Maximo park and Flying Lotus.

 

In my opinion I do not believe that four companies should dominate the music industry there many reason that I feel this way. One of being that is four large conglomerate companies dominating the industry they control what is shown and there is not diversion in music. Many artists become very similar; many record labels also aim to imertate artists meaning there is no evolution of the genre of music. Contrastingly if there was more record labels evenly dominating the market there will be more diversion from artist all trying to create something different. In addition by there being more record labels it will make it easier for independent companies to grab hold of the music industry and display more to consumers. This will also good as consumers will hear more offering more ‘organic’. By having more companies dominating the market artists will have a larger chance of success within the music industry, as if one company doesn’t like what they offer there are many over which maybe trying to create something new which artists may offer them. By having more dominated force in the music industry it will help the industry to grow by all record labels trying to create something new for the consumer to want.

I believe that major record labels are without a doubt more successful than independent record labels. This is because they have some of the most popular and successful artists. Therefore having extreme power within the industry. Record labels can’t have similar artists making it hard for artist to through into the industry. Theses artist which can’t get in to the industry may have new skill to offer which go UN noticed not allowing the music industry to grow. Contrastingly by having more record label dominating the market these skills will be used as there will be more artists in the music business.   

By there being less dominate companies in the music industry Independent record labels will be able to get more power in the market. This will mean they will able to offer the music industry real artists who are not moulded to fit a specific persona that the public are desperate to have. This means that the music industries likely to have more relatable artists that are likely to highly appeal to the public, therefore helping the music industry to grow. Independent record labels are more likely to sign underdeveloped and unusual artists, providing the public with a variation from the artists they would usually find themselves listening to. Allowing consumer to differentiate in styles of music. This will help grow new genres and build popularity of artists.   

It is clear that although 4 companies dominate the music industry as they have the most knowledge within the industry and most successful artists. The music industry will clearly benefit more to having more companies have dominated power in the industry. This will intern grow and inivate the industry helping it to evolve and become more beneficial to what the consumer want.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vox pops

·    As a group we decided to undertake some primary research in the form of a vox pop. This is because it would present us with more of an idea of how our target audience felt about various components which create a music video. Target audience feedback is fundamental and without it we may create a final product which does not appeal to them. We want to create a music video to entertain/make our target audience think about certain issues and therefore have various elements which appeal to them too.

 

·         To undertake the production of the voxpop, we created 5 new questions to ask a number of different age ranged and different gendered people (questions not used in our questionnaire) We then went around the school to find 5 available people to interview and took them to various places in the school to film them. Once we had filmed the interviews, we then edited the material we had. The footage we produced did not need much editing as the interviews flowed nicely.

 

·         We then added text at the bottom of each interview clip including the persons name who we interviewed and their age.

·         Creating our own vox pops will assist us with the planning of our creative production as it allows us to consider our target audience throughout. This may effect certain camera shots/editing styles we may like to use and to see how appropriate they are in aim to fulfil our purpose of appealing to our audience. It can be archived on YouTube as displayed at the top.

Lyric Analysis

Lyric Analysis

The lyrics of our song are moderately basic this is conventional to the dance/house genre, as lyrics are easy to remember to the target audience can sing along to the song. This is seen through the use of the “the sun dont shine” which is constent throughout the song giving it success as the target audience can sing along to the song. The song

focuses more on the beats of the music rather than the words the beat of music evoking the audience to dance. The lyrics have many literal meaning rather than any hidden ones.

 The lyrics describe a relationship and the love that the artist/ persona feel when in a relationship. We have decided to use this theme within our music video through showing the ups and downs of a relationship as well as incorporating a narrative in order to provide more depth. The happier lyrics such as 'I love you, don't ever let go' will be paired with happy flashbacks of the couples relationships such as romantic destination such as winter wonderland. The lyrics ' The sun don't shine without you, without you' lends itself to the part of the narrative where there are harder times of their relationship such of arguments etc. These lyrics will also be linked with the crash to enhance the idea that she has gone, 'without you' and will use darker lighting to contrast the other more cheerful aspects. 

The young target audience that our song and artist lends itself to a narrative such as the one that we have chosen. This is because they will be at the stage of their life where they will be experiencing similar events and will therefore make the video more relatable to the audience. This will give them a deeper insight into the song and the lyrics and enhance their understanding whilst also entertaining them. 

There are limited hidden meaning throughout the long due to conventions of the deep house genre. However the lyrics of the song do have hidden meanings. For example “iv walked through the valley of the wilderness in time,” this highlights a biblical reference to a graveyard. This would be something my group could use to highlight the pain of relationships and the consequence of actions. The song highlights the pain and love of relationships. “Through space and time your love is mine but the sun dont shine,” this evokes the feeling that that person was the only person for them and the sun does not shine as they are not there. Space and time is used as a metaphor for how much they will miss there lover. Through the use of repetition such as,” without you without you” highlights pain and loss which will be a common factor throughout the narrative. This is something my group could use when planning our narrative music video to create a connection with the audience. My group will use the limited hidden meaning to highlight the pain of narrative we aim to create.

 The group lyric annotations assisted my group massively in planning the micro elements, style, target audience and conventions of our chosen song. Through the use of highlighting key themes from the semantic field of relationships we through we could use lyric to show both bad and good sides of relationships through the use of word choice, this helped us to plan what our narrative would include. We also used a flow diagram using key words choice to highlights what we should include. My group also looked at the codes and convention which could be broken and appeal to our target audience. Such as having less dance elements and more narrative elements. Creating emotional links with the target audience.

Planning Setting and Iconography

Setting and iconography is essential to creating a successful music

video.

 The setting and iconography that we have chosen in our music video are crucial in order to convey the genre of the music as well as the way that the artist is represented. The setting and iconography will allow the audience to build a relationship with the star or with the narrative. It is also necessary because it allows the audience to connect on a deeper level to the narrative my group will attempt to create.
 The narrative music video will allow the audience to understand the connations of the lyrics which will intern create emotional links, which will hopefully make my group’s music video more successful. Therefore, each piece of iconography and each location purpose is to fulfil genres characteristics of our music video, and develop a relationship with the audience.  Therefore increasing the artists and my group’s success. In addition a powerful narrative will allow the audience to relate to the actions in the music video which is what we will aim to do. 

For our narrative elements we will film a number of different places starting with a grave yard evoking the pain of the song. This will allow the audience to relate with the loss of a loved one which is what the song is about “the sun doesn’t shine without you”. We want to achieve a simplistic outcome for our narrative because after conducting research we found that it will follow genre characteristics. In addition to the grave yard we will also film a number of various locations including, Central London (Hyde Park), a bedroom scene, car scene, the forest and a number of house scenes. These locations have been selected as they are well known for being romantic which is the semantic field of our music video. These locations are also easily accessible for our group and we believe the atmosphere will correlate to the overall feel we want to communicate with our target audience. 

Within the lyrics of the song, the artist mentions a number of locations. Therefore, we have chosen to shoot many of the locations including outside locations as the song is about the sun, however still using popular locations which the young target audience can relate to.  Although the central focus point of this location will be the two actors love and pain. The secondary focus on the people surrounding them will depict a sense of loneliness and reality of the relationship. Although the songs semantic field is also the sun my group still aim to show relationship. This is why our music video will also have many indoor scenes for example in the kitchen making a cake. My group will also use dark roads to evoke the feeling of fear. This will allow the audience to be sympathetic when the female character crashes.

Iconography is very important to highlight the micro elements which the song depicts. One of our props will be a mobile phone. This is something all audience can relate to as it is now very hard to find someone who does not have a mobile phone. The purpose of this is to highlight the pain of the song. This is through the use of cheating which the target audience can relate to. My group will have both characters making a cake. Scene in many romantic film will help to create the feeling of love to our target audience. My group feel the iconography (cake) help us to achieve this.

Another aspect of our narrative element will be shot during a firework show as this is a very romantic place, which keeps up with the romantic conventions of our music video. We plan to use fireworks as part of our iconography to create romantic flash backs of happy memories. My groups feel that our audience will be able to relate to this through lyrics.

My group to recreate the bed scene from ‘I need your love’ by Ellie Golding. This will be done through the iconography of a camera. The characters will hold the camera on them self trying to create the feeling that the couple are trying to save happy moments. The audience will be able to relate to this as many of us save happy moment through the use of a camera. The prop (bed) will help to create the reality of the couple and highlight the feeling of love, which the song suggests. It will also create links with the audience when the audience find out she dies.

It is clear through the use of iconography and setting my group aim to create links with the target audience. This is done through clearly understanding our target audience. This was achieved through a large amount of primary and secondary research which allowed my group to understand what they wanted. Once having this information we worked on creating emotion link and including things the audience would relate to. This should help our group to be more successful.