Research for Music Video - Copyright Clearance REPLY from Sony Music

From my copyright clearance blog post, I showed screenshots of emails which I had sent to the record labels of the songs that I wanted to use for my music video.

Sony Music replied back to me saying that I was allowed to use their SONG 'Oopsy Daisy' by chipmunk for coursework purposes only.
Below is a screenshot of their response from my email.

Research for Music Video - Review of my favourite previous student video

Below is a video of my favourite music video from a group who studied media last year. 

22. Siobhan, Vanessa, Rebecca, Can from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Why I like this music video

Research for Music Video - Planning for lip sync practice

After the lip sync tutorial, we had to prepare for the practice video. This included making a storyboard whilst repeatedly listening to the song to try and get ideas for how we want the video to be.

Our group chose to make a video for the song by Delilah - Never be Another. We made a short storyboard writing down rough ideas we had on a few base shots for our video and the different camera angles we were going to use. 

Ideas on setting:

- Against a brick wall

- Walking along narrow streets

Costume:

- Sunglasses - to give a dark feel to the song

- Normal casual clothing

- Hair down

Props:

-We decided not to use any props as they were not necessary for the idea of the video we had.

Research for Music Video: Lip sync tutorial

In todays lesson we had a lip syncing task where we learned how to match the music with the video.

The teacher gave us a quick tutorial on how to edit the music video and we were then given a short clip to edit.

The process of editing a music video begins with importing and  dragging in the clip.

We then selected the different base tracks and used markers to match up a key word we hear in the clip with the audio of the song.

After that is complete, we went on to using the blade to cut out different sections we want.

The process was simple and straight forward and I managed to complete the task.

Research for Music Video: Review of previous student video

02. Annie Nguyen, Elisha Inegbenebho, James Hutcheson, Jessica Ho

Research for Music Video: Analysing costume, setting and location

COSTUME, SETTING & LOCATION

In this post, I will be focusing on how the use of costume, props and locations differ in certain genres.

Hip Hop:

Rich Gang - Lifestyle ft. Young Thug & Rich Homie Quan

Within this music video there are various locations and costume changes. The costume changes consist of designer clothing as well as different jewellery each time. This gives off the impression that the artist as well as those in the video are wealthy which is typical of the hip-hop/rap genre. This links to the lyrics as they rap about living a lifestyle they always dreamed about. In addition to this, there are many prestigious locations such as the mansion, on a yacht, in the streets driving luxurious vehicles and on a private jet. There are also base tracks of the performers in run down area's otherwise known as the 'hood' as well as in a shoe store. The purpose of these not so luxurious locations is to show their transition from living in poverty to being wealthy which is spoken about in the lyrics. 

Hardcore:

Sleeping With Sirens - If You Can't Hang

In this video, the band are positioned on a stage in the normal structure a rock/hardcore band would be in. There is one location in this video and no costume changes. The location is a stage and the room is dark with few lights shining from the back of the performers. Furthermore, their clothes are quite simple, consisting of black t-shirts, black jackets, black tank tops and black jeans with the lead singer wearing a US National flag t-shirt, making him stand out, reinforcing the idea that he's the main performer. The dark clothes and dark setting is common of the hardcore genre due to the 'dark', furious and depressing themes of the music.

Electronic (Trap):

Keys N Krates - I Just Can't Deny

This video opens with the performers walking through backstage onto the main stage as the music slowly begins. Once the tempo of the song increases, they're performing on stage, with shots of the crowd jumping and dancing to the energetic music. They're at what seems to be a day festival which is typical of electronic music videos, where the DJ is on stage and the crowd is going wild. There are no costume changes and the clothes are simple, which makes the main focal point the energetic music.

Lip sync tutorial

In today's lesson we were taught how to lip sync a soundtrack with a music video on Final Cut Pro. 

If you look below you are able to see my attempt on syncing a soundtrack with some footage for a music video. I learn't many things in that lesson such as placing markers when a cut is needed for another footage to flow in through, using the cut tool to slice footage when needed so and able to understand how the soundtrack needs to be in sync with the footage. 

I also have some experience in Final Cut Pro which made it fairly easy for me to sync the footage into a music video.

My overall outcome out of my lip sync tutorial will have to be fairly well done because all the footage below syncs in time with the soundtrack so I believe I was successful in the lip syncing tutorial.

Lip Syncing Tutorial

We were given a tutorial on how to edit a video with lip syncing. We were given a sample video of a band singing with a variety of different camera angles. Our task was to edit the video so that the audio played in time with the lip movements on screen. 

We used markers to mark a part of the audio. We then had to match it to the part of the video where it matched the audio and mark it so that it would sync together later on.

The red arrows are called markers. 

After we finished marking all the different shots, we then copied the clips a couple of times so that
we could cut between them so that it would look like a proper music video. 

Research for Music Video: Lip Sync Tutorial

LIP SYNC TUTORIAL

Today's lesson was very beneficial as I was taught to sync lip singing with the song. It was quite challenging at first, but as soon as I got the hang of it, I was able to try it myself and did quite a good job at it too.

Using the keyboard for shortcuts such as:

• ...
• ..
• ...

We was given a song by a band in which the chrous was sung and recorded on numerous amount of videos. We then used these videos to create a basetrack for the song. It made the footage more interesting to watch because the camera was always moving and not just focusing on one particular thing.

 I used markers to mark parts of the audio which then we paired with the video of our choice to sync with the audio. I also had to count the beats of the music and add in more markers on the soundtrack to ensure that it would be intime with the video playing so that the movement of mouth matched the lyrics at the right time.

The middle column shows the soundtrack and the right handside video shows the action. I used markers on the soundtrack like this because it was easier to see when the singing starts more accurately as the fuzzy lines move up and down.

Finishing marking all the different shots, we then copied the clips a couple times so that we could after cut between them for it to look like a actual music video, deleting blocks at a time in any order we wanted.

This is what my final piece looked like on my first attempt:



Mulvey's theory on representation

THE MALE GAZE

Mulvey's theory supports and states "Visual pleasure and narrative cinema".

The concept of the male gaze means; how men look at women and how they are viewed at, how women look at themselves and how women look at other women. 

I have chosen Dizzie Rascal - Holiday, the song  is about a holiday what they do on their holiday, this would instantly present ladies with lots of exposure in their skin. 

This music video exposes a lot of human skin, the camera mostly lingers around the females and their assets as a female such as their bums and breasts, it also focus's on the males perspective on their reaction towards female exposure.

As you can see in this picture, the man is letting the women in and from what you can see, he is only staring at the females assets in which he must confirm if she is good enough for her to get into the club.

 Mulvey's theory states that females are seen as objects in music videos. Dizzie Rascal's Holiday is a perfect example towards Mulvey's theory as throughout the video females are just looked upon and visualised from a males perspective if there good enough to hang around with them. Women facial expressions are only seen in music videos as romantic/sexual, invitational and a cheeky temptation look where as the male facial expressions are seen as carefree, seductive and practical. 

The facial expressions in music videos are key towards Mulvey's theory.

I have also chosen : Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines ft. T.I., Pharrell

The reason why I chose this video is because it has over 341 million views and it was also one of the summers biggest tracks published.

This song has many reasons why it did so well, not because it is catchy but the actual music video itself, no other music video has done as well as Blurred Lines because the female appearance in some cases shocking. 

As you can see in this picture, the female exposure is really high. Throughout the video there is a lot of female skin exposure and females dancing around men. The men are smartly dressed in this video and the reason for this is because there portraying the male perspective as money and power. The video portrays how the men have more power than the women.

Research for Music Video: Carol Vernallis research

Carol Vernallis developed her theory of music videos in her book "The Kindest Cut - Functions and Meanings of music video editing (2001)"

The book presents music video as a multimedia artistic genre, she then analyses how different macro and micro elements create representation in music videos such as Jump Cuts, Slow motions, Special effect editing and base tracks.

                      

Martin Garrix & Jay Hardway - Wizard (Official Music Video)

Wizard is a music video full of MANY special effects, throughout the music video you are able to witness that there are several concerts into one video all at the same time, there are many fade effects with ultra bright lighting in the video. The special effects help the audience to understand what the feels are at his concert and the music video almost persuades people to go to his concert as it looks really exciting and fun. 

There are many shots of the audience/crowd jumping up and down with all smiles on their faces, this is a very important factor in the music video because they want to show off how good the concert is. 

There is also a few stages of slow motion involved, most of the time is just before the beat drops. This is used to make the moment really exciting and tense for the audience because there expecting the unexpected of a massive, crazy and intense beat drop.

Research for Music Video: Analysing costume, setting and location in music videos

I will be discussing the use of costumes, settings and locations for specific genres and how those aspects are changed within that genre.



Indie Rock:

Costumes - In this video the star wears black clothing featuring skinny jeans with a neatly styled hairstyle. The reason for this is because it reflects onto his personality which would be a chilled out person who likes to go out. In the video there isn't any costume change as he wears the same clothes throughout.
Settings & Location - The start of the video includes the performer in a bar which he then shortly walks out and strolls the streets of London slowly, there isn't many changes in the location apart from a bar and him walking on the street.
The location and costume really suits the video because it makes you believe he is just going for a nice night out, his costume allows the audience to understand that he isn't going to a crazy party but just a quiet drink with maybe a few friends. The location also allows the audience to understand that there isn't much of an effort of the night out as the location looks very local.




House:

Costumes -  Everyone is smartly dressed in this video, the females are dressed in a vintage looking way, the main person in this video is also wearing a suit but a mysterious panther mask, this would give the audience an image of his mysterious ways.
Settings & Locations - The location is set in a fairly expensive hotel which has an old vintage look towards it, the location also allows the audience to understand the relationship between the people who are featured in the video.
The location and costume also suits the video because the dress code in the video is smartly dressed and the location is set to be in a clean expensive hotel which would suit the occasion. Also one of the main props in the video apart from the massive panther mask is his stick, the stick is seen as a fashionable item in this video as the camera focuses onto his stick many times.






Rap/R&B

Costumes - The costumes in this video includes a lot high priced cars and gold jewellery. There are many shots which focus on all the jewellery, reason for this is because they like to show off what they have. The clothing in this video are seen to be fairly expensive but it suits the video because it contains many shots of them throwing money around.
Settings&Locations - Throughout the video most of the footage is seen to be set in a private garage which contains lots of expensive vehicles. Later on in the video you are able to see them cruising in their expensive cars in a hot weathered place such as Los Angeles. The reason for this is because a lot of people dream to have lots of money with the latest cool cars and live in a hot country so because they have the money to do so they would like to show off to the audience that they're almost living their dream.

Research for Music Video: Review of previous student video

This is one of my favourite music video's from a previous student because the lip singing in this video is very well done, the costumes and locations also really suit this music video because it has a happy vibe towards it even though she is becoming fed up with her boyfriend. The costumes are very well chosen in this video such as pink, this is a stereotyped female colour and because the artist's voice is very female like it suits the music video really well.


The location and settings in this video is also very well chosen such as a room in the house, a park and a skate park. All these locations make the music video feel more British where all these locations are very well known in London.




 



21. Khadeeja, Romy, Andreia, Luke from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Research for Music Video: Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin states that "traditional narrative analysis do not really apply to pop music video's because they approach narrative in a different angle to novels and films"

Music videos more often than tend not to include a demonstration of a typical genre characteristics such as girls dancing in front of boys in a music video would be seen as a R&B and arguably Pop videos whereas a stage performance with a group of males would instantly link to an Indie Rock type genre.

There are many songs in the industry that do not follow the narratives structure;

Disjuncture Video:

Ferreck Dawn & Redondo - Love Too Deep (Official Music Video)

- This song especially doesn't follow Andrew Goodwin's Theory as the music video has no initiative in having "Love Too Deep".  There is a male who walks around the street selling frozen lollies to strangers but strangely the females love it, the females in this music video are showing some skin which catches the male audience as well as the female audience for many purposes. The females are then dancing around with the males having a good time.

This song is linked into the House Genre - Many music videos for this genre is about people having a good time dancing around.

Illustration Video:

50 Cent - Candy Shop ft. Olivia

- Candy shop would probably be on the best examples in following Goodwin's Theory. This song is called Candy shop - This song presents lots of expensive cars, expensive chains/jewellery and lots of good looking females.

As you can see in this picture below, the R&B genre mainly have females spending time with males, just before this part of the video is shown 50 Cent says "I'm the love doctor" Then the next part of the video is him in a red/pink room with a female who is touching as if he is enjoying his female accompany. 

Amplification Video:

Hoodie Allen - Act My Age (Official Music Video)

Throughout the video the lyrics link towards the Music Video as the video exaggerates a young teenage life, the lyrics state "Act My Age" this illustrates that the person doesn't want to grow up as the lyrics exaggerate the purpose of the video. The Music video presents many things such as parties, drugs and alcoholic beverages. The purpose of this is used to exaggerate and amplify onto his lyrics.

Research for Music Video: What is the function of a music video?

The Music video I have chosen is Jason Derulo - Wiggle

The songs lyrics are merged with the official video, the song lyrics state "Wiggle Wiggle" and the music video presents lots of females really "Wiggling" their bums in front of the camera. The reason why this is made is to draw attention to the audience as female exposure is a high hit which started really in 2008+.
This then allows the audience to understand the concept of the song as the music video pretty much defines the song. Music videos are seen as a positive attribute in the music industry as it engages the audience which helps expand the popularity of the song which also has a positive impact on the sales that the artist/band make.

The name of this song is "Wiggle" and if you watch the Official music video, you will be able to witness that there is a lot of "Wiggling" which also promotes the song as female exposure is almost seen as a selling factor, it also makes female want to be like those females who are seen on the music video which is why female teenagers learn how to dance like the females in the music video such as "Twerking".

One of the main reasons whys I chose this music video because it was recently trending in the charts for many weeks and gathered over 280 Million views since May 21 2014 which is really good, Jason Derulo is also seen as one of the most famous pop artists so he suited this question very well I believe.

Research for Music Video: Copyright Clearance

Throughout the summer we were asked to email record labels and ask for copyright clearance for their music, as you can see below I emailed 3 people and got 1 acceptance. It was pretty hard trying to find a song without a music video which was made by a British artist but in the end I got there. As you can see below some record labels chose not to reply which was quite upsetting but in the end I received acceptance for;

Ben Pearce - What I Might Do

Research for Music Video: Laura Mulvey's theory

Laura Mulvey believed that we live in a world where men have power and women don’t. She also thinks that men dominate the media in the way that men do the “looking” and women are “looked at”. Whatever images the man has of the woman; this is then projected onto the woman as very sexual, passive, scantily clad and provocative. This is a common theme in genres such as R&B, Hip-hop and Rap for example. In these videos we, as the audience are looking from the man’s perspective. The shots of women tend to be, body shots, such as leg shots, and Arial shots to show their breasts. Body shots tend to be on a particular body part, like the bottom, slowly tilting down, showing the women’s physical features, which appeals to the men.

Below is a video which ultimately gives evidence for Mulvey's theory:

Research for Music Video: Carol Vernallis research

Carol Vernallis studied editing and camerawork in music videos. The main idea behind her theory is that music videos don’t contain continuity editing and the ‘rules’ of continuity editing are often in fact, ‘broken’. The purpose of this is to draw attention to the action on the screen as a way of encouraging the viewer to view it more than once. This is done by having edits such as Jump Cuts as well as special effects which are made ‘obvious’ . She also finds that the editing matches the rhythm of the beat in the song. Furthermore, she believes that master shots are often used to provide the video with a structure.

Jump Cuts – DJ Khaled – They Don’t Love You No More

An example of Jump cuts being used in music videos is ‘They Don’t Love You No More’ by DJ Khaled. The purpose of the Jump Cuts is to show

Slow Motion - August Alsina – Make It Home ft Young Jeezy

Slow motion is used in the video for ‘Make it home’ by August Alsina. The slow motion is of the main artist, August Alsina, running through the neighbourhood as he sings about the struggles of living around crime. The purpose of the slow motion and the rewind effect is to educate the audience on how you can end up being in trouble with the law and to show that you should take time to consider your decisions.

Special Effects - B.o.B – Nothin’ On You ft Bruno Mars

Special effects are a main thing throughout this video where we see the performers are like a cut out of a magazine. The purpose of this is to give the music video a comical feel.

Base Tracks – Logic – Nasty

Use of base tracks in the edit are evident where Logic is in the abandoned warehouse and beside the railing on a bridge. These base tracks connect with the lyrics which speak about the struggles of life and growing up around crime.   

Technical Skills I developed in the AS year

Throughout the AS Media year, I was able to learn new skills which allowed me to improve those skills and putting them into test in creating a short film, the skills I learnt also allowed me to improve my understanding in the Media industry.

How to use the camera - The very first thing we learnt before film making was how to operate the camera, we were taught how to operate the camera meaning to use the camera correctly to allow us to gain the best out of our film making. We learnt many features on the camera such as the focus button, record, filters, microphone unit, how to remove the battery correctly and removing the memory card safely without any corruption.

Final Cut Pro - When we had our footage for our film, we used Final Cut Pro which is a very east software to understand and use, I was taught many techniques for this software such as Trimming, Filters, Syncing sounds with footage and slowing clips down to make sure they are also in sync with the footage.

How to use the tripod -   We were then taught how to set up the tripod so we could use it as an advantage in our film making, we were taught how to pull out the stands safely and how to make sure that the three legs are evenly placed onto a flat surface, we also learnt how to place the camera onto the tripod safely so the camera was stable.

Filming techniques -  We were taught many techniques in filming such as having a correctly placed frame, this was very important because our footage would look very poor as it could of resolved of having too much head space in filming. We were taught the tilting and panning technique. We practised all these filming techniques before we went onto site to start out filming.

How to present work -  We were also taught how to use blogger so we were able to post our work onto the blog, we learnt how to present various devices onto our blog such as giffs, Prezzi and several animations. All these devices allowed our work to look clean and tidy and presentable for people to read and understand

Research for Music Video: Laura Mulvey

LAURA MULVEY

Laura Mulvey’s theory suggests men have power and women don’t, the men do the looking and women are looked at. Whatever image the man has of the women this is projected onto the women, such as sexual, passive, scantly, being provocative. It is mainly seen in music videos such as ‘R&B’, ‘Rap’, ‘Grind’ and ‘Hip pop’. Most videos are in the perspective of the male and the women are the objects.

 

‘Robin Thicke ft. TI and Pharell – Blurred Lines’

 

00.47 - Pharell is looking at her in a provocative way, looking at her bottom instead of her face

00.53 – Robin is in a bed with a naked girl, lyrics at this moment is “cos you’re a good girl, I know you want it’ implying a sexual relationship with the various girls

01.01 -The three women are half dressed in white short clothing with plastic, showing of their asserts by walking past Robin grabbing his attention on their bodies

01.24 – the brunette female is bent over in a provocative way, this is how you can tell we are viewing the video from a males perspective

... and it carries on all throughout the video, making the girls an object, putting  females in a bad light.

 

‘Tinashe – This Feeling ’

 

00.12 – Tinashe and all the other female dancers are wearing a short buster top with topless men behind them with hands wrapped around them

00.27 – The men are touching the females upper bodies, not really paying attention to their females faces only on their asserts, however the singer encourages it though her lyrics

00.38 – dancing against each other, again this is provocative but it is the singer’s intention to look sexy and trying to take control

01.11 – duo dancing together and actions are quite sexy, seeking the males attention on her and only her

 

 

 

Research for Music Video: Carol Vernallis

CAROL VERNALLIS THEORY

Carol Vernallis focused closely on editing and camerawork in music videos.  She discovered many stand out as disjuncture and that editing had a rhythmic basis closely connected to the song.

·         The usual rules of ‘continuity’ (editing that flows) are broken in order to draw attention to what is on the screen

·         Edits may be really obvious to draw attention to themselves, such as wipes and special effects added.

·         Jump cuts are used

·         A master shot – base track (locations that layer each other) is frequently used to give the video a structure

·         The camera may move in time with the music

 

‘Rizzle Kicks – Lost Generation’

 

 

JUMPCUTS

In the kitchen when the boy is making toast and in the living where the other is sitting on the sofa watching television, and in the park where they are dancing and on the bikes where they are fighting with the little boys

SLOWMOTION

Falls on the chair , when his running after the bike and the break dancing in the park

SPECIAL EFFCTS

A screenshot, and when the girls are filming the boys from their camera phone , freeze frames, titles and cctv from the living room

BASE TRACK EDIT

The big brother chair (static), the group of dancers and the Jeremy kyle show setting

Research for Music Video: Andrew Goodwin

ANDREW GOODWIN’S THEORY

Goodwin’s theory is strongly based around narrative analysis, depending on what genre the music is from formulates his ideas in what to expect in certain types of videos. He feels that traditional narratives analysis doesn’t apply to pop videos, simply due to the fact that traditional videos approach their narrative from different angle to novel and films.

·         Pop videos are built around songs

·         Pop videos uses a singer both as narrator and as a character – multiple roles

·         The singer often looks directly at the camera breaking the forth wall, this is an extension of performance trying to involve the viewers at home

Pop videos rely on repetition for example the chorus or a particular line. Pop videos have certain expectations as most of them are familiar or focus on intersexuality between men and women.  They do not have a form of closure or ending however they aim to build a climax or constant repetition before fading away.  Sometimes the visualisation of a song may go beyond the original meaning to provide visual pleasure on the audience, which also helps promote the music. There are three types of relations between the song : Illustration, amplification and disjuncture.  Pop videos have easily recognisable features, they also try to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible.

ILLUSTRATION – video tells a story of the lyrics, dance is often used to express the feelings/moods in the song.

‘ Drake – Hold on, were going home’

This fits into illustration category because as well as expressing their feelings and mood through dance, it also tells a story from the beginning of how they got to where they are and how the main character will save the love of his life no matter what, within the story there is a deeper meaning.

AMPLIFICATION – occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with lyrics but add layers of meaning

‘Its Tiffany ft. Fuse ODG – Spanner’

This fits into the amplification category because the music video reflects the characters actions. The lyrics are sync to what the singers are doing, so this does not contradict what they are saying, it emphasises instead.

DISJUNCTURE- where there is little connection between the lyric and video, the video contradicts the lyrics.

‘Micheal Jackson – Man in theMirror’