Editing to the Beat

First Production Meeting

Today we had our first production meeting and where we discussed the location, shooting schedule and made a story board. We sat down around the table and brainstormed some locations of where we could film. We had all agreed that we would be filming in London, but we just needed an area that was quiet, looked good and had a good atmosphere. Sam was mainly working on the storyboard whilst Azimul and I were searching for locations online. Towards the end of the meeting we spoke to one of our teachers for location suggestions and we were recommended to film in Shoreditch. Also we managed to tell them our ideas of how we were going to film the different shots on the storyboard and where we were going to film them.

Task 5 - Contacting the Artist

We needed to contact the artist because of the Copyright Law. We contacted their management and distributor by sending them this email explaining our situation to them and what we plan to use the song for.

Task 4 - Audience Research

As a group we gave out a questionnaire to a few groups in our class. We asked them to watch our video and give us feedback and thoughts of the music video we chose. The first group we gave the questionnaire to thought that the song we chose was upbeat and fast paced. The music video reminded them of artists such as Green Day, Busted and Sum 41 because of the colour and energy shown in the video. The group described the mood of the song as colourful, happy, cheerful and the group added that they   

The second group that we handed the questionnaire to answered the series of questions and gave us their thoughts on the song. They watched the video and gave us ideas of how to film the music video. They recommended that we could film in the streets of London or other places in the city because it would go with the mood of the song.     

  

Initial Ideas

When picking our song for the music video we first worked as individuals and browsed the web for different bands/artists. When looking through different music videos on YouTube we came across a song called "Angels Fall" by Breaking Benjamin. At first we thought that it was a good song for our music video. After listening to the lyrics we decided to look for another song because we had no idea how we were going to film a music video for the song. The song was too dark and it would've been too hard for us to film good footage.

"Hate" by Plain White T's was our second choice of music for the video. After listening to the song as a group we decided that we couldn't use the song. We didn't know what stye of filming we would've used when filming. Also the editing would've been slow as the lyrics of the song were all about love. We were in search of an upbeat song where we could use fast editing. Also because the song was about love we would have to try incorporate that in the music video and we had no ideas of how we were going to do this.

Task 3 - Choosing the Music for our Music Video

Plain White T's - "Our Time Now"

After listening to many songs and scrolling through many music videos on YouTube we decided to settle on the song "Our Time Now" by the Plain White T's. Our group agreed on this song and we discussed how we can use it and make a creative music video with it. Due to it being upbeat we knew that it was doable. The song does not include any bad language or offensive lyrics and 

the lyrics are easy for us all to lip sync.  

We are comfortable with the song that we have chosen, but at first we had picked a different song. After listening to "Hate" by the same band we decided that we wouldn't be able to make a music video out of this.

Copy of the Lyrics

Oh oh oh oh oh

There will be no rules tonight
If there were we'd break 'em
Nothing's gonna stop us now
Let's get down to it
Nervous hands and anxious smiles
I can feel you breathing
This is right where we belong
Turn up the music

Oh oh oh oh oh

This is the dance for all the lovers
Takin' a chance for one another
Finally it's our time now
These are the times that we'll remember
Breaking the city's heart together
Finally it's our time now
It's our time now

This is more than just romance
It's an endless summer
I can feel the butterflies, leading me through it
Take my heart, I'll take your hand
As we're falling under
This is an addiction girl
Let's give in to it

Oh oh oh oh oh

This is the dance for all the lovers
Takin' a chance for one another
Finally it's our time now
These are the times that we'll remember
Breaking the city's heart together
Finally it's our time now
It's our time now

Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Now
It's a dance
Get up
Come on brothers
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh

This is the dance for all the lovers
Takin' a chance for one another
Finally it's our time now
These are the times that we'll remember
Breaking the city's heart together
Finally it's our time now
It's our time now
(It's our time now)
It's our time now
(It's our time now)
Oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh
Finally it's our time now

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Music Video - Added Value

The primary function of a music video is to showcase and promote the artist and to advance sales. By releasing a music video it makes creates an opportunity for the artist to grow their fan base because they will get more recognized as the video is played on music channels.  

A-Ha - Take On Me

The music video for "Take on Me" by A-Ha added value to the song and made it win the 1985 MTV award. The song was originally released a year before the music video was released but it wasn't heard by many people and sunk to the bottom of the charts without anyone noticing. Steve Barron took on the role of being the director of the music video and he came up with a special idea that had never been seen on television before. It took three months to produce and the final piece left the watchers baffled. Its animation took up 1,400 drawings and was a hit in the charts.

Sinead O'connor - Nothing Compares To U

The song "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinead O'Connor was a cover from one of Prince's songs. The music video cost £40,000 to shoot in France, but majority of the shots were close up's of Sinead O'Connor. The video has close ups of Sinead O'Connor showing real emotion so this put the director in a bad situation because he didn't want to waste the footage that was previously filmed. The footage in France took weeks of preparation and planning so the director had no other option but to include it.  

Deconstructing two music videos to identify characteristics of the music video genre

"Bad Day" by David Powter is a pop single and has a narrative music video. There is no artist involvement, but there is some performance shots that we see throughout the music video of where Daniel Powter plays the piano. The music video includes some shots with split screens. This is to show the similarities between the two characters and how they mirror each others life of continuously having a bad day. The characters acting is the link between the music video and the song. By the characters acting their miserable days it helps the audience understand the song and distinguish other links in different shots. The mise-en-scene has been thought through carefully in the music video so that it links with the song. Mise-en-scene is made up of five key elements and these are settings and props, costume, body language/facial expression, lighting and colour and the positioning of the characters. The settings used express the way the characters feel about having a bad day. The journey to work shows many people and this could mean that they are just one of thousands of people repeating their boring life. When we look at where they work we see that they are both surrounded with tall buildings and this makes them feel inferior. The body language that the characters show in some parts of the music video tell the audience how frustrated they are. The music video is consistent and keeps with the narrative and performance concept so that the audience do not lose their interest and get confused. I think that the narrative scenes in the video are the reason why someone would carry on watching the music video up until the end.  




The music video to Rhianna's "Shut Up And Drive" has a performance based concept where Rhianna performs with her band. The whole video revolves around Rhianna and she remains mostly in the middle of the shots. This shows that she is kind of the pacemaker for the song. The close ups and different shots of her almost drag the audiences attention away from the music and make them more concentrated on the video because of her body. The shots are almost the same throughout the video. They just show her face, torso or cut off just above her bum and these shots have nothing to do with the actual song. There is fast editing with many shots of her singing directly into the camera and the editing is set on the beat of the song. During the band sequence there are many different camera angles used and this is to show how energetic the band are whilst performing. The mise-en-scene used in this sequence is mostly focused on the body language of the band and how they are putting all their energy into the performance. The lighting in the performance is quite dark, but this goes well with the performance because we can see all the band and its almost as if they shine through with their music.

Styles of Music Videos

A performance based music video is where the artist or band are included in the video performing their song. An example of a performance based music video is "American Idiot" by Green Day. Throughout the video we see each member performing. In some of the shots we see the whole band performing together. There is no crowd in the video, but because of the editing and the type of music that is being played the music video is still lively. 


"Pompeii" by Bastille is a narrative based music video because the band tell a story in the video. The story itself is featured in the lyrics, but it is dramatized in the video. "Pompeii" is all about the people who died in Pompeii after Mount Vesuvius erupted. The music video relates to the historic event, even though it is set in modern day. 



This music video for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" is classed as a cinematic music video. A cinematic is when there is a short scene that is similar to a film. In "Thriller" just before the music video starts there is a short opening scene that sets up the music video. The opening scene has qualities of a film and that is why it is a good example of a cinematic music video. 



"Lean On" by Major Lazer and DJ Snake is an abstract based music video because the lyrics that are sung do not relate to the video. The video is not about anything in particular, but we can see that it has a good structure and rhythm.



"Don't Yo Worry Child" by Swedish House Mafia is a music video that is made from their live performance. They are performing at a music concert and there are many shots of the live audience enjoying the music. The music is very upbeat and the audience bring out the energy in the whole music video making it enjoyable to watch. 



Parody is a style of music video. It is not so common because for a parody to be made a song or music video must be released, and only a few people are able to make them work. The intention of a parody is to copy the original piece, but with imitations and exaggerations for humour. In the "Uptown Funk" parody we see that they are mimicking Bruno Mars on the way he looks and dances in the real music video. The video also criticizes the music from the 80's saying how all the music was made by cocaine addicts.



Pastiche is where the artist is going back in time, but living in the music. For example "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea is a pastiche music video because the artist is going back in time to when she was a teen.


Animation is another style of music video that is used to make it more unique and entertaining. "I See Fire" contains some shots of animations. Most of the video uses computer graphics to set the scene or have moving images appear on the screen. This makes the video unique from other ordinary music videos because it includes fantastical scenes or creatures. I chose this song from Ed Sheeran as the example because a lot of the shots include CGI.



An inter textual music video is one that has the artist mimicking other artist. They may use certain words, phrases or have cinematic in the music video to call out to other artists.