History of Music Videos

Music Video Timeline

1964: Music accompanied by motion picture was introduced by the Beatles in 'A Hard Day's Night'.

1965: Beatles produced black and white films as promotional videos for their album releases.

1981: 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by the Buggles is shown on MTV.

1984: Thriller by Michael Jackson. Which becomes a huge success due to its dark and scary visuals and innovative dance moves. The video adds to the song.

1988: 'Night of the Living Baseheads' by Public Enemy broke records and hip hop artists started to realise how they can express themselves (an image) through music videos.

1992: MTV started showing directors names thus talented directors started gaining recognition.

1995: 'Scream' by Michael and Janet Jackson was the most expensive video to be made costing about seven million dollars.

2002: Music Videos on DVD.

2005: iTunes Store.

2005: Youtube and Myspace launched. Due to which artists such as Ok Go and Soulja Boy gained success as viewers viewed their videos online.

2011: 'Friday' by Rebecca Black managed to get over 130 million views in less than 2 months. With a majority being dislikes and negative comments.

Evaluation question: In what way does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I believe there are aspects in my media product where it follows conventions of its genre and also where it challenges them. In the video there is a lot of close ups of the lead singer and she is framed centrally. If we compare this to the Foo Fighters music video ‘The Pretender’ we can see how they do this as well thus could be said is following conventions. However Indie rock is tough genre to assign conventions to as it is generally aimed at a niche audience especially unsigned indie rock bands. The set up of the band is very common with a lead singer, a guitarist, a drummer and a bass player. The colours they are dressed in are quite typical; red’s positive connotations are: passion, sexiness, love and negative connotations such as danger and anger. The other dark colours worn could imply the band being mysterious, rebellious and dark. In the cd cover and magazine ad the clothing style is similar to that of the video and conventions. The font used is quite typical of the genre. From an earlier post these are the conventions of a indie/alternative rock music video;

Independent music videos used to be solely performance based but with time has become mostly a mixture between narrative and performance. The narrative of the video tends to follow closely to the lyrics of the song. Depending on the lyrics of the song the colours used in the video could be colourful (e.g. Scouting for Girls – Heartbeat) or dark (Kings of Leon – Sex on Fire) or even black and white (Kings of Leon – Use Somebody). The band performing tends to feature quite a lot in the video and there is likely to be close ups of the lead vocalist. The location the band performs in could be anything from a small empty room to a massive stage where they are performing to vast crowd; or even something unconventional like what the Killers did for their music video ‘Human’ where they were performing in an open desert.

There are quite a few examples where my media challenges conventions of real media products. Firstly unlike the generally seen male dominated rock bands my group has 3 girls and only 1 boy. It shows a dominating female figure (lead singer) who comes across as strong, rebellious, attractive and energetic. She is framed centrally and has a lot of screen time as well as extreme close up shots taken. This completely overthrows the stereotypical ideas represented in such videos where women are simply objectified. This contradicts Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory where she thinks men see women as objects and just something to look at. The use of close ups and putting the band on a well lit, isolated ice rink can show star theory, making the audience focus on just the band. It is quite unconventional for this type of genre to use brightly lit backgrounds; however the foo fighters did do this. The video has a narrative structure thus following Todorov’s theory but the structure order is changed around where the narrative starts with boy and girl arguing (which seems like the present but actually is in the past) then it goes onto the present where the boy is not there. It later goes into the past again where she remembers his funeral and finally goes to the very start of their relationship where they are in love together (black and white). The reason I did this is to add a post-modern element to the video and I think it suits the band’s style and goes really well with the story behind their song; which was about a friend of theirs who didn’t know how to express her feelings after the loss of her spouse, and ran away from her problems.

How did you use media technologies in the research and planning stages?

Google

I used google.com a popular search engine throughout this project. I used it initially to research on music videos different genres and media theories. Later when I found the band I would like to work with I used google to find information about the band and the genre of music they do. Google has definitely been useful as it has provided me with lots of information on all the aspects I researched. However this could also be seen as a negative since a search can get you

more than a thousand results it could be hard to find

the specific information you are looking for. I used google images to research cd covers and magazine ads. I used goolge maps to find possible filming locations quickly and effectively.

Youtube

Youtube stands in forefront of video sharing; it’s used by millions of people everyday and is a good place to start researching. I used youtube to find music videos and analyse them. I also used it to look at existing A Level music videos to get some ideas. I listened to talks by recognised media theorists and teachers. Youtube has been really helpful and I could only fault it for maybe not having all the videos people might be looking for as it’s a sharing site and someone has to post it.

Facebook

I used facebook to initially contact several bands to ask if they would be interested in this project. Seeing as I was looking for unsigned bands this seems like a good option as any as unsigned bands generally tend to have

facebook accounts to try and get some publicity. After finding a few who were quite interested I tried to contact them directly. I managed to talk to ‘In Your Honour’ via a mutual friend and we got things started. I also used this website to advertise the need for possible actors in this video. I would say facebook is quite an effective means of communicating and advertising and is even used by famous artists for publicity. But it is important to use this website responsibly as it is a sharing site and any one could access the information you put on it.

Digital Camera

I used a digital camera to take pictures of the possible film locations and show it to the band.

How did you use media technologies in the construction of your project?

Camcorder

The camcorders felt a lot friendlier this time around. I think I must have learnt from my mistakes from the AS project on the horror film opening sequence. This time I let the camcorder focus on the target before recording and also kept it steady so the target remains in focus. I made sure the cameras were fully charged and as a precaution kept the charger with me at all times; the footage tends to become corrupted and distorted when filmed with low battery (a lesson I learnt the hard way during my AS project when I lost a day’s worth of filming due to this problem). The zoom in feature was useful when I wanted to focus on a single object or person. The zoom out was equally useful when trying to show my audience the wider picture after having grabbed their attention with a zoomed in and framed shot. The biggest drawback to the camcorder was the low quality. Shots that involved low key lighting such as the footage at the Croft where the band were performing live had to be disregarded as the subjects cannot be seen. The distance you can zoom in was also limited due to the low quality.

MiniDVs

This time instead of buying all the tapes from

the shop I bought some spare unused tapes off my friends to save some money. The tapes are a format of recording and playing back digital video and are compatible with the camcorders we had available. I would recommend getting your own tapes so you can be sure they haven’t been tampered with or previously used.

Tripod

The tripod was used to get steady still shots and also a steady panning shot in the ice rink. Rest of the video I shot handheld to get a raw and edgy feel as the music is quite fast paced.

I initially used Adobe Premiere Elements for video editing and Adobe After Effects for post production. However due to some technological malfunctioning I had to use my back up work which was edited using IMovie. I imported the video footage onto a mac using a firewire. Although IMovie has a smaller number of editing tools it was easier to use as I had used it in my year 12 coursework. I used IMovie to cut the clips, get screen grabs, add effects and add transitions between the clips.

Photoshop Elements

I used Photoshop Elements to create a CD cover, magazine ad and CD inserts. Although not familiar with this software in particular I managed to get the hang of it quite quickly. I was quite lucky to have a qualified teacher explain to me about how the programme works and how to bring my ideas to life on screen. I kept the products as original as I can and did not use too many graphics and designs as I believe it won't suit my music genre’s conventions. I used layers to add different designs, fonts and colours.

Blogger

I used a media blog to regularly note down how my project is going. I used it to add images, videos and links. I also used it join other people’s blogs and see how they are getting along.

Google

I used google images to find images to add onto my blog. This image of the google logo is a good example.

What have you learnt from your Audience Feedback?

When creating a media product it is important to target a specific target audience to ensure the success of the product in sales. Once the product is made, audience feedback is used to reflect upon the product and to see what improvements need to be made to ensure high sale figures. Both positive and negativ

e feedback is useful; positive feedback tells us what we are doing well and m

otivates us to keep doing it and negative feedback tells us what needs improving.

As a producer or artist your main aim (generally) is to sell as much of your product as you can and make a profit. This is why producers and artist use means such as questionnaires, social networking sites and interviews to find out what the target audience think of their products. It will not be beneficial to change the product to suit every reviewer’s opinions, but rather take on all the suggestions and then make

educated changes. It may even be your product needs better marketing strategy and the product itself is good.

Here is what some of the people said about my media products;

Music Video

Positive Comments

+ “Great location”

+ “Lots of good camera shots and angles”

+ “Editing looks professional”

+ “Love the way the story is kind of not in exact order, made me kind of think more and I guess I was more into it as well because of this”

+ “A very good video, enjoyed watching it”

+ “liked it”

+ “the scene where the girl was at her boyfriends grave looked really good, especially with the sunlight coming through in rays”

Negative Comments

- “Editing could definitely be improved on”

- “Some of the bits were really shaky, I don’t know if that’s what you were going for but I didn’t like it”

- “story was a bit hard to follow the first time I saw it”

CD Cover and Magazine Ad

Positive comments

+ “Visually very attractive and I can see how it represents the band and the genre"

+ "Love how you have included images from the making of the video onto the booklet inside the cd cover. Also love the how each band member has their own page reminds me of 'The Boat That Rocked' advertisements. Very well constructed".

+"Front and back of the cd cover is hilarious. genius."

+"I can see the cohesiveness between your main product and ancillary text"

Negative comments

-"Should be more cohesive"

-"Basic font and typography"

-"Could have been more simple"

CLC

At the CLC we were introduced to Adobe Photoshop Elements by a professional teacher who showed us the basic skills we need to create our final CD inserts and magazine Ad. Here I learnt about the importance of cohesion.

Although the software was unfamiliar to me I truly enjoyed being creative and trying different things.

Overall I was happy with the work that I had created but was a bit disappointed it wasn't cohesive enough. Next time to correct this mistake I would use a similar colour scheme and typography in both the cd inserts and magazine ad.

I learnt how to use layers. Change composition, contrast and colours. I learnt how to crop and construct images to a high standard. I learnt how to blend images and typography. I learnt how to change backgrounds and use various tools like the smart touch brush. I also learnt to revert images and use the dodge tool (to deal with exposure and work on the shadows), and the sponge tool and burn tool.

Comparing my initial images with my final products:

Cd inserts

inner cd inserts...

magazine ad

before after