Mv assignment 2019 pro forma

MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCTION
CASE STUDY
J O S HUA B A IL EY

MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCTION
• We will look at Music Videos from a number of perspectives, this
template is for you to write up your notes and to complete your
case study.
• The document is split into 3 different tasks, each with separate
questions to answer.
• Task 1 is concerned with the purposes of music videos and the
strategies employed by labels and artists
• Task 2 is concerned with the styles, techniques and conventions of
music video production
• Task 3 is your own case study into a minimum of three music
videos where you can unpack and discuss the videos considering
everything you have looked at in Task 1 and 2

NOTES ON COMPLETING THE
CASE STUDY
• It is often easier to show something you are discussing than to
take time describing it. With this in mind, feel free to add lots of
illustrative images from your chosen video examples. Links to
YouTube/Vevo/etc are also encouraged.
• Remember, when you make a point or define something, you
should follow this with an example, an explanation of this and
then link to further texts/videos where possible.
• If you don’t think there is enough room to add your full
response to a question, don’t just reset the font size to really
small, add an extra slide wherever necessary.

TASK 1 - PURPOSES
• Q1 - Outline the 3 core purposes of music video with a short
explanation for each:
• Entertainment – To entertain and engage the audience into the
audio and visuals. Catching and maintaining the audiences
attention.
• Branding/Identity – Spread awareness of the performers and
musicians in order to make them more well known and
ultimately a household name.
• Sales – The more well known and famous an artist becomes the
more people are going to want to buy their music. Videos with
high budgets that look nice are most likely the ones to make the
most money.

TASK 1 - PURPOSES
• Q2 – What are some of the broader purposes of music videos? Think about some of
the strategies employed by artists in their videos and how they represent themselves,
you could consider where the artist is on a major label, independent label of unsigned,
is there a difference between them?
• Politics/Social messages – A lot of music videos are made with the purpose of
spreading awareness of an event or problem affecting the real world in the past,
present or future, i.e. War/Depression/Global warming.
• Advertising – Some music videos feature brand new products that are recently
released and are promoted in the video in order to persuade a viewer to buy them,
products such as new cars, phones or clothing. Companies pay a lot of money to
famous artists to include their products in videos.
• Promoting – Artists sometimes feature in other musicians videos as a way of
promoting their own music or their partners music. This is very common as it is a good
way to have a range of music in one song and have two famous collaborators making
fans happy

TASK 1 - PURPOSES
• Q3 – Describe what is ‘synergy’ is and how it has been used in
music videos [min. 3 examples of synergy and convergance]
• Synergy is the cooperation between two or more artists or
organizations in order to produce a collaborated product
including all the things each party is excelled at.
• Synergy is heavily involved in both the music and film industry
and is most commonly referred with product placement in films
and music videos or even hidden in the lyrics of songs, most
notoriously in the hip hop genre
Adele – Skyfall
for Skyfall
Will Smith -Wild Wild West
For Wild Wild West (1999)
Coldplay – Adventure of a lifetime
Beats by Dr Dre featured in video

TASK 1 - PURPOSES
• Q4 – Branding; select an artist you like and look at how they
present themselves in their music videos. Explain what their
‘brand’ is, who is appeals to and why they might have done this.
• The Wombats
• The music videos of The Wombats are all unique in
their own way yet all abstract and have supernatural
elements in most, if not all their videos. The brand of
The Wombats has altered overtime but a few things
that have always stayed the same are iconography of
wombats and the band. A wombat acts as the bands
logo and as a sort of mascot that appears in their
videos and at live performances.

TASK 1 - PURPOSES
• Q5 – Compare One Direction and Animal Collective music videos
[find them on YouTube!], what can you discern about each act
from their videos? What is the main aim? Explain why.
• One Direction is a multi-million dollar brand, even though they
are nowadays broken up and no longer perform they will always
be remembered for their music and impression they made on their
fan base. And are known by many to be one of the best boy
bands of all time.
• On the other side of the coin, Animal Collective is an experimental
pop band with a significantly smaller following than One Direction.
While their brand isn’t a massive one they still have a loyal fan
base and fill out venues that they play at. Their budget also isn't a
big as well known bands but create amazing videos nonetheless.

TASK 2 – STYLES,
TECHNIQUES AND
CONVENTIONS

TASK 2 – STYLES, TECHNIQUES
AND CONVENTIONS
• Q1 – Describe and explain the use of camerawork in music
videos, i.e. the types of shot used with examples to illustrate
this.
• Types of shots used in a music video are heavily influenced by
the genre of the music for example hiphop music has a lot of
low angle close up shots to make the artists in the shot seem
bigger and superior. While genres like rock are more likely to
have a wide shot to fit all the band members in and scroll round
the stage to get the feel like your are at a live performance or
concert.

AND CONVENTIONS• Q2 - Describe and explain the use of editing in music videos, i.e. the types
of shot used with examples to illustrate this
• The use of editing used in the music video for Time to Pretend – MGMT is
purposely created to look bad, like an amateur made it just to simulate what
it is like to be on drugs which is partly what the song is about. In a sense the
video for the song amplifies the meaning of the lyrics. Editing is is used
purely just to make an entertaining video to coincide with the music, the
music video for Take on Me – a-ha acts as a short film with amazing editing
as the characters walk back and fourth into being hand drawn animation
and the real performance. Videos like these keep the listener engaged and
enjoying the song

AND CONVENTIONS
• Q3 - Describe and explain some of the technical developments
in music videos, i.e. the types of shot used with examples to
illustrate this
• Over time music videos have become more technically advanced
using higher quality cameras with software that made editing
easier inspiring artists, famous or not-so famous to try making
creative and original videos.
• As editing software such as, Photoshop and Premiere Pro
became better and better new transitions and animations have
become easy to use even for amateur artists and directors.

AND CONVENTIONS
• Q4 – Genre conventions; often music videos adhere to genre
conventions within their visual style and production techniques.
Select a recognisable genre and use illustrations to explain what
their genre conventions are…
• The artists’ style, appearance and personality are often
influenced by the convention of their genre. For example for the
rock genre is mostly comprised of bands with 4 or more
members. Mostly in dark attire in cool poses. A lot of rock
music videos are just recordings of performances for the songs.

AND CONVENTIONS
• Q5 - John Stuart’s description of the music video “incorporating,
raiding and reconstructing” is essentially the essence of
intertextuality [something asserted by Andrew Goodwin]. Can
you explain what intertexuality is and find some examples of it
in music videos?
• Intertextuality is essentially references from one media to
another which can be found in music, film, tv, video games etc.
These can be included and hidden in many different ways
throughout a product, a common way it is used in music videos
is the way the artist is dressed usually as an homage to another
artist.

TASK 3 – CASE STUDY
• For your individual case study you must study an artist or genre
of music, focusing on a minimum of 3 videos [ideally 5+ videos]
• This should provide discussion on the usage of the following:
– Style[s] & Techniques employed
– Intertextuality
– Camerawork/editing
– Genre conventions
– Critical approaches [you should be applying some of the critical
approaches from your lessons and some of your own, to your
selected videos]

TASK 3 – CASE STUDY
• You should include a video link for the video
• You can include as many illustrative stills as you like
• Be creative in your approach, it is suggested you use the
heading on the previous slide a guide on how to structure your
response to get you started
• Remember, make a point, use a specific part of the chosen
video as an example, explain yourself and then link to another
video where possible
• Compare and contrast your artist/genre to other artists/genres
• Remember to consider differing contexts

TASK 3 – CONVENTIONS OF
INDIE ROCKThere are few conventions for the indie genre, since bands alike aren't
that well known or internationally famous, although there’re notable
themes and styles that can be seen in a variety of music videos:
• Location - Settings of most indie music videos are low budget areas
which are easily accessible yet aren't very populated (public places).
Not normally places that need to be hired out
• Narrative – Not all indie music videos have narratives, roughly half
are blank videos with the album cover or lyrics scrolling across the
screen but every now and then there are popular indie songs with
an audio-visual story behind them.
• Camerawork – The shots in the music video are most likely
featuring the band or artist performing in order to make people
become familiar with them and their songs. Wide shows are used to
establish the band’s members.
• Editing – Cinematic effects and filters are often used to make the
music video feel like a short movie.

TASK 3 – ALT-J
• Alt-J as a brand is an indie rock band, among other genres like
experimental rock and folktronica. Which pretty much says it all. Formed in
2007 and still present to this day. Comprising of 4 members at the time of
it’s founding: Joe Newman, Thom Sonny Green, Gus Unger-Hamilton and
Gwil Sainsbury. However Sainsbury left the band in 2014 leaving Alt-J as a
trio.
• The Leeds based band have received many awards and even went to the
UK number one with their second album This Is All Yours. As of 2019, Alt-
J has released three full studio albums along with 15 singles.
• Their many songs, live performances and appearances are most likely
accompanied by bright colours, grueling videos and peculiar lyrics with
hidden meanings.

TASK 3 – BREEZEBLOCKSUse of conventions in Alt-J music videos
• In the music video for “Breezeblocks” editing is used in a way that I
have never seen in another video before, the narrative of the
is entirely played backwards and pulls it off seamlessly and even
a plot twist at the end. Cuts in the video are timed with the beat
and shots go at the same speed.
• The set for the video would be a low cost apartment that they
would have cheaply rented out or just produced in their own
homes.
• Suspense is also made in a certain bit of the video… the camera
focuses on a knife on the floor but because of the video being in
reverse you dont see who has the knife until it flies back into
someones hand.
Breezeblocks – Alt-J

TASK 3 – HUNGER OF THE PINE
• This video starts with a birds-eye view of a forest and cuts a man running away
from incoming arrows. Throughout the video it keeps cutting back to above
the trees as if to emphasize how lost the character is and increase the intensity
of him being in danger. As the video progresses the man gets hit by more
and more arrows but doesn’t collapse or stop until the end of the song when
he pours fuel on him and waits for a barrage of fire arrows over the horizon.
Anybody listening to the song could easily misinterpret and not understand
and just skip over it but the techniques employed and meanings behind every
word. ’Hunger of the Pine’ isn’t referring to the tree but to the verb pine as to
desire something and in this case it’s love as other lyrics suggest the character
‘sleeplessly embracing you’
• In the case of this song, editing and camerawork is used to express a hidden
narrative over a non-representational action filled music video which is
amplified by the lyrics. The mise-en-scene is subtle but vital for songs with
hidden messages like this.
Hunger of the Pine – Alt-J https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCCXq9QB-

TASK 3 – DEADCRUSH (REMIX)
• While the original music video for Deadcrush is a lot more literal and has
synchronised dancers; this remix has flipped that round with a rap video
placing intertextuality everywhere. Firstly, the song is a collaboration with Alt-
J and Danny Brown, a rapper with a history of featuring and remixing other
artists. Collaborating is a good way to experiment in trying something new,
try and entertain fans of both artists and ultimately become more
recognizable and well known.
• The animated video takes heavy influence from elements in gaming culture
such as including a PlayStation game case and redesigning characters from
popular games like Super Mario and incorporating them into the video.
• Editing and animation is used in this video to entrance the viewer in a late
90s video game world and entertains them my showing a twisted, drug-
fueled narrative around this world
Deadcrush – Alt-J (feat. Danny Brown)

TASK 3 – PUSHER• While music videos usually have narratives, this one is more of a
social message that can have many interpretations depending on
who is listening. The contexts between the video and the
music/lyrics are completely different. On one end the artist is
singing about love and heartbreak as most artists do but the video
is a lot more metaphorical and aimed to be thought about; it
shows one man stand above identical looking men all in suits and
scream at them, gesticulating and appearing generally angry at
them. In the end the man screams into the sky and continues to
force his own neck to snap. In my opinion the imagery created by
the shots, setting and themes are used to represent real-world
society now and evoke emotions towards politicians and other
authority.
Pusher – Alt-J

Mv assignment 2019 pro forma

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Mv assignment 2019 pro forma