This is the new song I would like to do. I have requested permission for this and am hoping she will get back to me in the next few days or week or so. She has already made her own music video for this song however it is composed completely by her and she is an unsigned artist. This song is also available for download on her Myspace account.
Tuesday, 15 October 2013
Narrative, Performance and What makes it memorable?
Carrying on with Goodwins ideas, this blog is going to discuss narrative, performance and what makes it memorable.
Narrative and Performance.
Songs fail to give us the complete narrative and we only tend to get a gist of the meaning of the song and tend to make up our own idea of what is being told.
Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative and it is important in their role of advertising. Music videos should have coherent repeatability and narrative and performance work hand in hand. It makes it easier for the audience to watch it over and over again without losing interest and becoming bored. The artist acting as both narrator and participant helps to increase authenticity however the lip syncing and other mimed actions remains the heart of music videos. The audience need to believe that this is real for a music video to work, and it doesn't need to tell a strong story.
What makes it memorable?
Narrative and Performance.
Songs fail to give us the complete narrative and we only tend to get a gist of the meaning of the song and tend to make up our own idea of what is being told.
Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative and it is important in their role of advertising. Music videos should have coherent repeatability and narrative and performance work hand in hand. It makes it easier for the audience to watch it over and over again without losing interest and becoming bored. The artist acting as both narrator and participant helps to increase authenticity however the lip syncing and other mimed actions remains the heart of music videos. The audience need to believe that this is real for a music video to work, and it doesn't need to tell a strong story.
What makes it memorable?
- To make an artistic statement for example Talking Heads 'Once in a Lifetime', an example of disjuncture.
- Ok Go 'Here it goes again' and 'White Knucklers' which are also disjuncture.
- Lady Gaga's 'Born this Way' which has references to Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' music at the beginning and alien and sci-fi films.
These are good examples of promo videos. They achieve a range of different promotional aspects. This is because they are all individually different. They are very disjunctured, as previously discussed, showing no relation to the song or lyrics whatsoever. This allows the audience to be interested and allows for high discussion. Whether the audience watch the video for the song or the images on screen it does not matter, both reasons increase popularity of the artist. However, we find that the majority of the time we watch music videos because they are interesting. Disjuncture allows a music video to be interesting.
Goodwin and the relation of visuals to a song.
Relation of Visuals to Song.
ILLUSTRATE.
Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre and this is the most common. An example of this is Stan by Eminem.
This is an extremely well put together video where everything which happens in the lyrics happens on the screen, through an image. I believe this is a great video and is very effective. It tells a story.
AMPLIFY.
This is similar to repeatability. The meaning and effect is manipulated and shown constantly throughout the video drumming it into our vision. An example of this is Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus.
There is a repetitive image in this video of Miley riding on a huge ball naked. This could represent how she feels stripped of her innocence and is about her recent break up. This image relates to the lyrics of the song and amplifies it.
DISJUNCTURE.
This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored. An example of this is True Faith by New Order.
This video does not relate to the lyrics or song in any way. This can be effective and cause people to become intrigued by the video, therefore listening to the song.
ILLUSTRATE.
Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre and this is the most common. An example of this is Stan by Eminem.
This is an extremely well put together video where everything which happens in the lyrics happens on the screen, through an image. I believe this is a great video and is very effective. It tells a story.
AMPLIFY.
This is similar to repeatability. The meaning and effect is manipulated and shown constantly throughout the video drumming it into our vision. An example of this is Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus.
There is a repetitive image in this video of Miley riding on a huge ball naked. This could represent how she feels stripped of her innocence and is about her recent break up. This image relates to the lyrics of the song and amplifies it.
DISJUNCTURE.
This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored. An example of this is True Faith by New Order.
This video does not relate to the lyrics or song in any way. This can be effective and cause people to become intrigued by the video, therefore listening to the song.
Key Features.
KEY FEATURES OF A MUSIC VIDEO!
These key features were all identified by Andrew Goodwin in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (1992).
How successful is a music video?
We can measure how successful a music video is from different aspects.
This was one of Britney's first hits and was very popular with the public. The song was popular however the video was what attracted her fans. It was premiered on MTV however it was the internet that gave her the most attraction. Teenagers would log into AOL accounts and use Alta Vista to search for the popstar's video. They wanted to see more. In the UK this was voted the best selling single and music video of the 90's and the video was shot in the same setting as the film Grease. She performed this at MTV Video Music Awards and claimed the video was made to relate to young people. It was top in the charts and sold over 10 million CD copies. It was the final song to be played on BBC's favourite music channel Top of the Pops in the 1990's and the video was ranked at number four on the list of ten most contraversal music videos in pop by AOL. You can actually download the video in the iTunes store right now!
- Word of mouth
- Number of hits on youtube
- Newspaper articles/TV reports
- How many times it is shown on television
- Amount of publicity
- Downloads (illegal/legal)
- Charts
- CD Sales
Britney Spears - Hit me baby one more time.
This was one of Britney's first hits and was very popular with the public. The song was popular however the video was what attracted her fans. It was premiered on MTV however it was the internet that gave her the most attraction. Teenagers would log into AOL accounts and use Alta Vista to search for the popstar's video. They wanted to see more. In the UK this was voted the best selling single and music video of the 90's and the video was shot in the same setting as the film Grease. She performed this at MTV Video Music Awards and claimed the video was made to relate to young people. It was top in the charts and sold over 10 million CD copies. It was the final song to be played on BBC's favourite music channel Top of the Pops in the 1990's and the video was ranked at number four on the list of ten most contraversal music videos in pop by AOL. You can actually download the video in the iTunes store right now!
The end of music channels?
There are many different music channels available to watch on television.
Although there are still many available to watch music videos on, they are much less popular than they used to be.
WHY?
Because there are many other stronger promotional platforms to watch music videos on than music channels. This type of promotion for the music video is becoming irrelevant due to online streaming and
downloading allowing them to become instantly accessible!
Although there are still many available to watch music videos on, they are much less popular than they used to be.
WHY?
Because there are many other stronger promotional platforms to watch music videos on than music channels. This type of promotion for the music video is becoming irrelevant due to online streaming and
downloading allowing them to become instantly accessible!Practical Coursework.
The practical side of this coursework is to make a music video.
The main things needed to be included in this project are:
Lip syncing
Performers must learn the song
When filming play the music and sing out loud to make the mouthing of the words look realistic
Look into the camera to connect with the audience
Sing the whole song in one shot and then another and edit it as you want
Film in different locations
Create layers on Final Cut Express
The main things needed to be included in this project are:
Lip syncing
Performers must learn the song
When filming play the music and sing out loud to make the mouthing of the words look realistic
Look into the camera to connect with the audience
Sing the whole song in one shot and then another and edit it as you want
Film in different locations
Create layers on Final Cut Express
VOX POP evaluation.
The VOX POP was my first research assignment on music videos. The purpose of this research was to gain general information and opinions on different music videos and what makes a good one. Then we put this information together to create a video VOX POP and analysed peoples ideas on music videos. This information will be thought about when I am experimenting and filming my music video.
The questions we were given to ask to candidates were easy to understand. However, we re-phrased the last question from 'where do you watch music videos?' to 'which platform do you watch music videos on?'. This is because people may interpret the question 'where do you watch music videos?' different and may give answers such as on the train, bus or at home, when the question was aimed towards their use of media to watch music videos such as you tube or music channels. Our rephrasing of the question could have been better because people may not understand what 'platform' means or what we are actually asking them. A better question may have been 'what type of media do you use to watch music videos?' however our candidates did understand what we was asking them.
I think our questions were able to be answered by all candidates effectively, however 'what do you like about music videos?' and 'what makes a great music video?' are very similar questions which we had very similar responses to. We could have changed one of the questions to make the answers more varied and opinionated.
The questions were designed to provide the answers we required, as this information is very useful when filming a music video, because now we can understand what people like about music videos. For example, some people we asked said they like music videos with a story line which relates to the lyrics, so in my music video this is what I would like to achieve.
I think the shot of the camera was held quite steady. We used a tripod and did not move the camera so this was an effective way of keeping the camera steady. We framed each shot quite appropriately, however for two of the candidates we filmed I believe we should have kept them on the opposite side of the frame to the interviewer. On the other hand, the shot framing change between candidates was quite effective, showing that we did not just film in one place, giving the affect that this was a random VOX POP created by chance, as they usually are.We used a boom pole for the sound equipment and the 'dead cat' cover which allows us to block out most of the sound around us, focusing on what it is aimed at, in this case the candidate being interviewed. i think that the sound came out quite effectively however in one of the candidates recordings there is some muffled noise in the background. On observation, however, I do believe that this gives off the impression that this is a chance meeting while other people are going about their business, creating the effect of a real VOX POP.
I believe that our VOX POP provided us with a limited amount of research, and more candidates could have been used. Some of the filming had to be cut out and re filmed due to mistakes being made. However, we still ended up with only three candidates for our VOX POP. The editing of the VOX POP was quite easy and done on Final Cut Express, cutting out parts of recording we didn't need. When filming we kept the recording quite baggy so we could edit it out easily and this helped when we finally began to edit. We put the pieces we needed in order beginning with the first question, showing all the answers of candidates, the second questions then showing all answers of candidates and so on.
Overall, I believe that our VOX POP could have been better and next time I will aim to rephrase questions more suitably and find a larger amount of candidates for better results in my research.
The questions we were given to ask to candidates were easy to understand. However, we re-phrased the last question from 'where do you watch music videos?' to 'which platform do you watch music videos on?'. This is because people may interpret the question 'where do you watch music videos?' different and may give answers such as on the train, bus or at home, when the question was aimed towards their use of media to watch music videos such as you tube or music channels. Our rephrasing of the question could have been better because people may not understand what 'platform' means or what we are actually asking them. A better question may have been 'what type of media do you use to watch music videos?' however our candidates did understand what we was asking them.
I think our questions were able to be answered by all candidates effectively, however 'what do you like about music videos?' and 'what makes a great music video?' are very similar questions which we had very similar responses to. We could have changed one of the questions to make the answers more varied and opinionated.
The questions were designed to provide the answers we required, as this information is very useful when filming a music video, because now we can understand what people like about music videos. For example, some people we asked said they like music videos with a story line which relates to the lyrics, so in my music video this is what I would like to achieve.
I think the shot of the camera was held quite steady. We used a tripod and did not move the camera so this was an effective way of keeping the camera steady. We framed each shot quite appropriately, however for two of the candidates we filmed I believe we should have kept them on the opposite side of the frame to the interviewer. On the other hand, the shot framing change between candidates was quite effective, showing that we did not just film in one place, giving the affect that this was a random VOX POP created by chance, as they usually are.We used a boom pole for the sound equipment and the 'dead cat' cover which allows us to block out most of the sound around us, focusing on what it is aimed at, in this case the candidate being interviewed. i think that the sound came out quite effectively however in one of the candidates recordings there is some muffled noise in the background. On observation, however, I do believe that this gives off the impression that this is a chance meeting while other people are going about their business, creating the effect of a real VOX POP.
I believe that our VOX POP provided us with a limited amount of research, and more candidates could have been used. Some of the filming had to be cut out and re filmed due to mistakes being made. However, we still ended up with only three candidates for our VOX POP. The editing of the VOX POP was quite easy and done on Final Cut Express, cutting out parts of recording we didn't need. When filming we kept the recording quite baggy so we could edit it out easily and this helped when we finally began to edit. We put the pieces we needed in order beginning with the first question, showing all the answers of candidates, the second questions then showing all answers of candidates and so on.
Overall, I believe that our VOX POP could have been better and next time I will aim to rephrase questions more suitably and find a larger amount of candidates for better results in my research.
VOX POPS.
VOX POPS are a type of audience research. This is Latin for 'voice of the people' and usually are in public places with chance encounters. They are often used on news programmes to show balance of opinions on a particular subject.
Each person is asked the same questions aiming to get a variety of answers. Our VOX POP was about music videos, and we asked the following questions to all candidates.
Do you watch music videos?
What is your favourite music video?
What do you like about music videos?
What makes a great music video?
On what platform do you watch music videos?
We got into a group of three, one of us the interviewer, one of us the producer and one of us the camera man. We used a HD camera, which I will also use for my music video, and a boom pole to get the sound we wanted and to be able to hear the answers clearly. Our VOX POP was staged, but they are usually random.
This is a VOX POP about what people watch on television and the coolest things at the moment. The interviewer is asking members of the general public in London.
Each person is asked the same questions aiming to get a variety of answers. Our VOX POP was about music videos, and we asked the following questions to all candidates.
Do you watch music videos?
What is your favourite music video?
What do you like about music videos?
What makes a great music video?
On what platform do you watch music videos?
We got into a group of three, one of us the interviewer, one of us the producer and one of us the camera man. We used a HD camera, which I will also use for my music video, and a boom pole to get the sound we wanted and to be able to hear the answers clearly. Our VOX POP was staged, but they are usually random.
This is a VOX POP about what people watch on television and the coolest things at the moment. The interviewer is asking members of the general public in London.
Monday, 14 October 2013
New song.
I have decided to change my song because I was unable to find a suitable candidate for the music video. I have changed genre completely and found someone suitable for my new song called 'Crazy Good' by Mary Sarah. This is a pop/country song. I have asked for permission to use this on Myspace and am currently waiting for a reply.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)