Carol Vernalis' Theory

Vernalis studied into music videos carefully and observed that edits come much more frequent than in film. The editing usually always has some rhythmic structure that goes along with the song.

• Obvious edits to draw the attention of the audience. Special effects and wipes are often added.
• Base tracks are frequently used to give video a structure. It allows for different shots of the same scene to be used, this adds a more depth into a music video and makes it exciting for the viewer.
• Rules of continuity are broken to draw attention to what is on screen.

This video Wasn't Me by Shaggy shows the three main rules of Vernallis'.

There is a subtle wipe at the beginning of the song (0:20-0:22). This would add more excitement to the audience as a wipe usually signifies a start or an end. In this case, the music video has an opening sequence with the track playing in the background. It adds a story and meaning to the lyrics.

In this music video there are probably more than 7 base tracks as there are many scenes to this song. This can allow the audience to follow through with what is happening through the visuals. This song is also a narrative, therefore the artist is show less to allow for the story to be shown. 

Continuity is broken in this video by adding all of these base tracks, different shots(jump cuts) and camera work such as panning and tracking(0:43-0:46). This all helps in a music video so the camera work doesn't look stiff. It visually stimulates the viewer if the range of camera work varies in shot types.

Research: Costume, Setting and Props

In this video there are four costume changes and three changes of setting. there aren't any props other than the instruments in the song 

In this video drke has 2 costume changes and 3 changes of location

Cassie has 4 changes of costume in this video and 5 changes of location 

Research: Previous Student Video Review

I have chosen to review this video because it is mainly based on promoting the new artist rather than having a narrative story behind it. This is the type of theme we are going to be looking to use for our video, and this is a good one to look at because it was marked very highly.

The camera is never static in this video which is a main feature of good music videos and you can see good examples of Vernallis theory as there are many base tracks and the filming isn't continuous. there is also a strong performance from the artist.

Analysing costume, setting and location in music videos.

Video 1: Rizzle Kicks - When I Was A Youngster

Costume Changes in the video: 6

In the office hes wearing a fireman outfit this is not shown again however it mirrors what the lyrics are saying.

In the next shot hes seen in the mirror wearing a blue shirt and a vest, he is shown wearing this costume in future scenes during the verses. This costume shows him grown up in contrast to the almost childish dressing up shown in the scene before.

In this scene he is wearing a cowboy hat while standing at the doors of his house again the costume doesn't link to the location at all but links to the lyrics instead illustrating them.

Research: Mulveys Theory

Laura Mulveys theory was that in the media women are sexualised and devalued by being styled to pleasure males. Women are constantly looked at through the male gaze and dismembered in order to please them. This was in media but it can be applied to music videos also. particularly hip hop and r n b videos.

This video dismembers the femal form quite a few times and  presents them as objects for male pleasure.

Research: Vernalis Theory

Carol Vernallis studied music videos and looked closely at camerawork and editing.
Her points were

• Continuity editing is not used in music videos to draw attention to whats on screen
• Edits are very obvious
• Jump cuts and special effects are used frequently
• To give the vide the video some kind of structure a base track is used often.
• Camera often moves in time with the music.

Rihanna uses base tracks when she is in the chair singing and dancing

There is also jump cuts to the strippers dancing

You can see the obvious editing

Review of a previous students video.

This is a previous A2 classes music video of hold my breath by Ellie Goulding

The video follows Andrew Goodwin's theory as it has a narrative as the signer is acting as both an artist and the narrator.

The song shows a girl lying next to a boy who disappears next to her and then proceeds to sing about it in her dreams.  The video makes good use of slow motion and the filter makes it seem like it is almost in the past or memories of the girl and makes the video more compelling to watch. The artist also looks directly at the camera and at the audience this makes you feel like she is singing directly too you, I also liked the way they used pictures of the street which transitioned into her walking down the same road. I think that it is very memorable and is something that people with think of when reminded of the video

Research: Goodwins Theory

Andrew goodwin believes that pop videos cant really follow a traditional narrative structure. Because pop videos are built around songs and songs dont always have a traditional narrative structure, also because pop videos often use the singer as the narrator and the character. In music videos the singers usually break the fourth wall and connect with the viewers by looking directly at the camera.
There are three types of links between songs and their videos.

• Illustration - This is where the video illustrates what the song lyrics are saying.

• Amplification - This is when videos add deeper layers of meaning than what the lyrics show on the surface

• Disjuncture - This is where there  is little or no link between the video and the song.

Mulvey's Theory

Laura Mulvey:

Mulvey theory states that a male gaze, which is the way that men and women see women in the media is due to the sexual imbalance. The theory states that the audience is made to view a female figure in sexual and very often demeaning way.

Rhianna - Pour it up

This is an example of females being shown in a sexual way which is done as Rhianna has allot of male fans. Her image is shown as a sex symbol, as this video is her dancing mostly without most her clothes on

Nicki Minaj, Cassie - The Boys

This is an example of the male gaze as it is shown by the male actors in the video, they all watch her and act dumbfounded as she walks around with practically no clothes on

Research: The Function Of A Music Video

Music videos are there for the main purpose of promoting the artist. Artists in this age make no money from making music videos as people just watch them for free on youtube and mtv. Music videos are to present the artist to the public and to represent them how the artist or label want them to be for their publicity.

A prime example of this is Lady Gaga ft Beyonce Telephone. This single was so successful that it sold 7.4 million digital copies worldwide. The video was good publicity for Gaga as she was the first star to top 1 billion views on youtube.

This video plays with the "women in jail" genre

It uses lots of product placement

Uses intertextuality of "the pussy wagon' from tarintino

Vernalis's Theory

Vernallis found that in music videos showed more edits than in film.  Editing is usually in time with the song.


Vernallis Points were:

• Music Videos often use really obvious edits which draws attention to its self this can be done by using special effects and wipes.
• Music Videos ignores continuity editing to always draw attention to new shots.
• Base Tracks are standard in music videos which give it structure and is use with jump cuts.
• Camera movement is done in time with the music

 Ellie Goulding Starry Eyed follows Vernalis's Theory.
Throughout the music video the special effects were obvious and noticeable for example the star constellation surrounding Ellie as she walks away and the bright lights in the transitions.
Base tracks were also used the main ones being Ellie singing in a cave and her walking with the male.
The video also has allot of jump cuts as she changes location as she sings.

Andrew Goodwin

                           

Illustration:
Taylor Swift ft Ed Sheeran: Everything has changed

This song is a good example of illustration as the narrative is related to the song, the children are playing with each other and its about romance which is shown when they leave the class to go play.








Amplification:
Hoodie Allen: You are not a robot

This song plays on the title you are not a robot, The artist is chased by children and adults in badly made robot suits throughout the video even though this is not exactly what the song is about it is still relevant and adds layers of meaning.












Disjunction:

 

 Video had nothing to do with the lyrics but since Imagine Dragons are well known and the song was good it didn't matter the video was for entertainment and not promotion.

Research: Copyright Clearance

Review Of Previous Student Video

Reflecting on AS: Technical Skills Learnt

Last year in the making of our thriller videos I have developed many technical skills ranging from the use of  final cut pro to the filming and planning our production. These skills are all very transferable to the work we will be doing this year and it will be a great help to already be comfortable with the use of these programs and technologies meaning that our final outcome will be of a higher quality overall.

These are the different things we used.

• Final Cut Pro
• Soundtrack Pro
• Cameras
• Flip Cameras
• Blogger
• Speakers

Reflecting on AS: Previous Video

In the three weeks that we came back for our A2 taster weeks we made a video to practice making music videos. we were able to look at previous examples and make videos using base tracks and lip syncing. This was good practice to see what were the hard and challenging parts of making it so we would be able to learn from our mistakes making the real thing better.

Introducing Myself

Hi Im Javayl, im 17 and i do Media Studies at City and Islington college

Function Of A Music Video

AS: Techincal skills i have learned. (Prezi)

During my AS year doing media studies i have learned how to record shots in focus and apply the rule of thirds in my work we during the first few weeks of the course we made a Swede we learned how to position the camera in order to record the actor without having too much space in the shot. We then had to blog about our editing progress with Final Cut Pro.

We also used Photoshop to create album covers we learn to use the magic lasso tool to cut an actor out of the background and move the image of the actor onto a new more appropriate background.



 Carefully we could use the tool to go around and image and cut and area in the image, i used this tool to create silhouette.

 While making the trailer for thriller film I learned how to make a chase scene seem realistic and how to record jump cuts and match cuts and edit them so that it seems like it was recorded in one take. For our preliminary we had to create a scene of a character walking into a room then having a conversation, we had to record the character walking into the room from outside of it and then do it again so we could record the character entering the room from inside the room.

We also had to use a lot of ICT in our Blog for example we made use of Gifs to present images.

When we were editing the final edit for the thriller film we had to make a Ident for a Distribution Company we used Motion to get special effects and Sound Track Pro to make the song.



I also became proficient in blogging and using new ICT.

I learned how to use the following programs as well
Final Cut Pro
Adobe Photoshop
Soundtrack Pro
Prezi
SlideShare
Blogger

Reflecting: Technical Skills

Last year we learnt many new skills that could help us for this year. We learnt things such as:

• How to use Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro 
• To manipulate in Photoshop
• How to use a professional video recorder to film our thriller
• we learnt how to use websites such as Prezi to help us with our AS grade. 
• Specific lighting skills to make certain scenes more effective
• Learnt techniques for camera editing such as camera movements, cuts( jump, match), and angles.

AS: Music Video Remake - June 2013

The Music Video Remake that I done back in June was HEY YA by Andrew 3000

Our group decided to use a green screen and try to copy the theme of the main singer being the whole band, as we couldn't shoot in the same room it was kind of difficult to position the edited shots on top of the background, also as the green screen was edited outside of Final Cut Pro when ever we moved to clip to sync it would have to re render the whole clip which took up to an hour so we couldn't sync the video to the best of our ability.
   
Well it seems if you use source code you can take a video without having to screen grab it just thought i would share something i learned today.

 This was my album cover for my digi pack i picked the colour her was wearing during the shoot and used it as the main colour i then thought to use the idea of making silhouettes of him over the cover in different positions add colour to them and an album cover is created.
 The song list could be more defined instead of it being a box i could have had their own silhouettes.
I could have done a lot better with the album cover however it seems really dark and i could have used a different colour for the background. Also even thought the silhouettes are Andrew i could have made them more detailed to reflect that like making outlines of clothing. Another idea i had afterwards was that since Andrew was a 1 man band it could have been a good idea to have the cover as a band silhouette with a drummer.

Im Ashley Hi

Im Ashley Sawyers
:17 years Old
:A2 Media Student.
:The guy on the far left.
THERE SHALL BE CATS

Research For Music Video: Copyright Clearance

These are the songs I chose to ask copyright clearance for. The songs I chose don't originally have videos. Which would allow my group to think up so many different ideas. Of course, we would research into the genre to ensure that we can portray the conventions of that specific genre.