Blog Reflection Two

This week we had looked at our Thrift Shop "Mash-Up" video that we had created at the end of AS. We had looked at how vast the impact of picking the correct actors and planning the shot types the had  on the messages and readings of the music video, as had also had an knock-on effect of the quality of the composition. The idea behind the mash-up video was to look at a range of music video styles. The style that I had was in any style other than that of the song, so we had decided to use a Rock style having the actor dressed in black, leather with sunglasses singing into a microphone, with superimposed images of thrift shops behind him, the weaknesses of the piece were that lip syncing was very, very difficult as the choice of actors had a big impact on this, as the actor must look like the have "Grain of voice" to match the vocals of the song, But a positive outcome of the mash up video was that I learnt how to use the green screen and what not to do with it, I had learnt that we should keep the lighting consistent so that it is easier to remove the background from the visuals, as we had used natural lighting so when I was removing the background in areas the image was "fuzzy".  

Beachcombing

Katy Perry - Part Of Me

This music video had caught my eye as it goes against Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze and empowers women, as we see in the narrative aspect of the music video we see Katy Perry getting cheated on, and she was feeling weak, as you would stereotypically think, until she joins the marines and trains with/harder than the men, this is a good conversational point and this would build word of mouth promotion along with "re-watchability". If we relate this music video to the representation theory of Stuart Hall, the readings we could get are that she is stronger and is getting over the break up, but the oppositional reading would be that it is propaganda to try and get members of the general public to join the marines. Katy Perry may have targeted this at teenage girls, to show that if something goes wrong in a relationship - be strong and soldier through it.

Ludacris - Act A Fool

I like this music video as it has intertextuality with the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious, this means that they could reach out to a wider audience, such as the fans of Fast and Furious, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Paul Walker, Eva Mendes and Devon Aoki, and this would help with the promotion of the song and also the movie. 

The narrative element of the music video has similar scenes to the movie, as at the start the cars pull up and each driver collects a package, and in the movie Brian and Roman drive to a impound lot and collect a package, this is a unique technique as it doesn't reveal scenes from the movie but replicates them.

The costume for the music video is branded clothing such as Adidas and Nike, for example when Ludacris says "Just bought me and my cars some brand new shoes" - he shows a pair of Nike air force 1's and these are iconic in a rap video, as these are the trainers that most rappers used to/still wear. The style is conventional of a hip-hop music video as we have lots of good looking girls, fast cars and have a lot of attitude from the artist - hand gestures and body language.

This music video had inspired me as the attitude shown by the actors/artist in the video added verisimilitude to the video, and made it more conventional to the genre, and this will help me as it creates the image of how I would like my music video to look like and how to make it conventional to the genre.

Gabrielle Aplin - The Power of Love

I had first heard this song on the John Lewis advert, and had then seen the music video from there, The colour pallet is very dark/pastel colours to connote simplicity and create dark atmosphere to connote vulnerability, as she is playing piano in a empty house, and we see a long shot through a door, as if someone is watching her. The style of this music video shows love from a darker perspective and it protects us, on top of the piano we see dead flowers, this makes the video seem darker and more emotional.  This video is inspirational as it has given me an idea of how I could use the colour pallet to my advantage to alter and manipulate the tone/mood of the video.

Naughty Boy - La La La ft. Sam Smith
This music video has a lot of conflict about the meaning of the video, at first glance we would think that it is pastiche of The Wizard of Oz, but some believe it to be an interpretation of a Bolivian legend, I think that the director of the video has been clever and connoted two different meanings to the viewers, reaching out to different audiences. I like how the theme of domestic violence is tackled in this video, and how to overcome it, this would support people who have suffered similarly and give them confidence to stay positive. The narrative aspect of this video is what interested me, as it was successful as visuals matched the lyrics and also was cutting to the beat, creating a positive atmosphere.

Music Video Remake (Thrift Shop)

We was given the task to make a segment of a music video for Macklemore's Thrift Shop; we had chosen the style of the music video from a hat, and my group had been set to create our segment in any different style that is not conventional of the songs genre.

My section was is between 00:44 - 01:44.

I had learnt how to superimpose images onto the green screen, although it had now come out great as when we was filming the light on the green screen was inconsistent, if I decide to use the green screen for the music video, I will use artificial lighting so that the background is easier to remove, making the end product better quality.

Blog Reflection One

Unsigned.com Website that we looked
for artists on.

This week we had looked at a overview of the project, we was then set the task to pick a song that our project would revolve around, it was difficult to find a good song composed by an unsigned artist as there is a large quantity of songs. The artists that I had found was unsigned, but was also inactive as I couldn't find any contact details, so I had decided to tweet him, but hadn't got a reply.  My fears about this project is that my chosen song is too descriptive and only has one reading, so therefore my music video would follow this structure and become an interpretive video, but my hopes with this project are that I want to have a music video that contains multiple meanings that the audience can appeal to. The person that I am working with on this project is Akif Ahmed; http://akifa2.blogspot.co.uk/

My Chosen Song/Permission

I had found it difficult to contact the artist of this song, but I had managed to find his twitter page, so as this was the only way that I could contact him was through twitter, I am currently pending a reply from him.

Style and Conventions of Music Videos Content

Intertextuality- Referencing

Low - Flo Rida feat. T-Pain

This style of music video is referencing and is a part of intertextuality, this means that one media text would refer to another- in this example the song "Low" would refer to the movie Step Up 2, as the song is incorporated in the movie, and the music video incorporates scenes from the movie itself.

The institution may have decided to use referencing to show that two mainstream artist (Flo Rida and T-Pain) are associated with the movie, targeting the artist's fan base, also the use of scenes from the movie may also act as a movie trailer so the audience would build interest into the movie.

Narrative: 
Ed Sheeran - Lego House

The style of a narrative music video is that the lyrics of the song would convey a story and then the visuals would also convey a story, for instance Ed Sheeran often uses narrative, but does not take the main role of the visuals but makes little appearances into the video, he does this because he wants it to be more about the music, rather than the profile of the artist.

The institution may want to use this style of music video to raise awareness of serious issues, a popular topic that Ed Sheeran sings about is drugs and all of the consequences that are associated with drugs such as prostitution to raise money to buy drugs and being homeless due to the addiction. 
This would have a massive impact on the audience as it would raise awareness to them and they would notice how common it is in our society.

Animation:

Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know

This style of music video was mainly animation, as we see the main character and he is gradually getting painted into another picture, later we see a female character and she is painted into the same picture, animation was used to show that once they were apart of the same picture but things have changed and she is no longer apart of his life.

The institution may have decided to use this method as it may have been low budget, uses one location and multiple meanings have been conveyed to the audience through a very simple idea. The pace of the song is very slow and the song itself is very sad/upsetting the dull colours used to paint the picture match the mood as very dull colours have been used, such as greys and browns.

 This would impact the audience by allowing them to produce their own conclusions as to why these two people are getting painted into a picture, but also the video is original so will produce a lot of word of mouth promotion about the song.

Performance
Rihanna - Cheers (Drink To That)
A performance style video is when we have the artists performing to an audience, be it a real audience or a staged audience. 

An institution would want to use a performance style video to generate revenue, as having a performance aspect to the video would give the audience a glimpse of a real concert, as seen in the video above. Another reason why an institution would use a performance aspect is to show the people who haven't gone to a concert what they are like so they are not missing out.

The impact that this would have on the audience is to make them want to go to see the concert live, to do this they would have to buy tickets. This would also cause the artist profile to increase as it would attract more people to go, such as parents buying tickets for their teenagers etc.