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Professor Andrew Goodwin
Professor Andrew Goodwin develops and studies a range of functional materials. His
principal aim is to understand and exploit the ways in which structural disorder and
flexibility can give rise to a variety of unusual physical properties of both scientific
and commercial importance.

Goodwin’s theory states that there are 5 key aspects to
a music video.
- Thought through beat (seeing what the lyrics mean in your head)
- Relationship between the song and visuals.
- Narrative and performance of the song.
- Technical aspect of a music video.
- Star image (protagonist), lots of camera shots making him/her the centre of
attention.

How this Links to our music video:
- Thought through beat: We used the shots to relate to the lyrics at that exact moment. For example
when the lyrics says ‘open your mind and listen to me Kendrick, this is your conscience’ We have our
model sitting in a dark room with a single light on while he has his eyes shut as if listening to his
thoughts.
- Relationship between the song and visuals: We used alcohol bottles in most shots as the lyrics were
about a ‘swimming pool of liquor’ this highlights that excess alcohol should be present.
- Narrative and performance of the song: we made our model act depressed throughout as we
wanted to illustrate how the repetitive chorus ‘pour up, drank, sit down, drank, stand
out, drank, pass out, drank’ is highlighting how he is drinking to forget what is on his mind.
- Technical aspect of a music video: Our shots would always zoom in to show how we are getting a
personal insight into the characters thoughts and feelings, we would fade in and out into the new
shots to show how our model is reminiscing which is causing him to drink as he is remembering Lilly.
- Star image – both our models are always centre of attention as they are in the middle when
considering rule of thirds. We made their clothes stand out from the dark lighting and made the
white clothes almost iconic as both our models wore a lot of white to show innocence and purity but
most of all the link between white and angels which in turn represented death.

Thought through beat. (seeing what the lyrics mean to you)
This can be done using a process of 3 things:
- Analyse the music structure so you can understand the chorus and verses.
- Then analyse the main voice of the song, the voice is unique which will give the
person a form of identification which can be related to the star image or singer.
- The final step would be the story the artist is trying to tell within the song. It
could be a story which is shown through the video and the vocals of the song.

How this linked to our music video:
We analysed the lyrics to decide the kind of story we would like for our music
video, we decided to create one quite deep and personal as a lot of the lyrics
had visual links such as the mention of drinking alcohol.
We then analysed the main voice of the song as the artists tone was quick
paced in the scene with the conscience as if he is panicking and in desperate
need to stop what he is doing with his life. The chorus uses another deep
baritone voice which almost shows that the drinking is being forced on him as
he feels he must as the deep voice is always the one to say ‘drink.’ We
incorporate this by using a text message from his friend telling him to bring
drink which shows the peer pressure and forcefulness.
Our story is definitely one that is shown through the video and the vocals of
the song.

Relation between the music and visuals.
There are three ways visuals are used to promote a song:
Illustrate:
music videos use certain images and shots to illustrate/explain the meaning of
the lyrics.
Disjuncture:
The meaning of the song is completely ignored in the music video. (e.g. lady gaga
videos)
Amplify
Repeatability. This is when the images and camera shots are manipulated and
shown repeatedly throughout the music video to ensure we start to recognise it.

In our music video we illustrate and amplify but never disjuncture.
How we illustrate:
We use the shots to show the personal aspect and we use the message and
scenes to show the meaning of the lyrics.
How we amplify:
We repeat the footage in the chorus as the chorus repeats the same words,
therefore this shows the repeated process of drinking and enables people to
recognise the importance of alcohol in our video.
We don’t disjuncture as we wanted the lyrics to relate to the video to make it
look successful as I feel the best videos are one with a message as it makes you
understand the lyrics more.

Relation between the music and visuals.
Andrew believed that a music video can promote a song through the way it
analyses the lyrics.
This is shown in many music videos when a character does what the song
says, for example, when the lyrics say ‘Jump’ the characters start to jump.
This is present in our video as our model is sitting down when the chorus says
‘sit down.’ He drinks when the lyrics say ‘drink.’ He passes out when the lyrics
say ‘Pass out.’ This is then repeated for each chorus to make the audience
relate the footage to the lyrics.
Also when the lyrics tell him to listen to his conscience we had Connor in an
empty dark room with one single light to show how he is doing what the lyrics
tell him to.

Narrative and performance of the song
Andrew Goodwin believed that it was important for an artist to be involved in
the music video by performing or acting out a role as the main character or
singer.
This helps to make the song look more realistic, a good example of this is the
song ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston.
She is the main actress in the song and she is singing all of the lyrics this
engages the audience and makes it look more realistic.

Our artist is the main role in the music video as we followed the real videos of
our artist Kendrick Lamar to help us produce our own. In Kendrick’s other
videos he is always the main actor and is always the key aspect to the music
videos however he never sings therefore we didn’t want our model to either
as it could look unprofessional if the timing wasn’t right or the facial
expressions were too blank.
Despite not using our model to sing the lyrics I feel our video still engages the
audience and looks realistic as it is clear we have produced the video to make
it look like the actor is the singer of the song.

Star image, lots of camera shots making him/her the centre of
attention.
Goodwin referred to the star image as a vital aspect of the music video as he/she
makes the music video look more appealing to the audiences while making it
unique.
The star image is always very unique in the way he/she is presented e.g. the
costume, dance moves and appearance.
This helps to promote the artists image in public and also helps to promote the
video while creating a public reputation for the artist.

In terms of rule of thirds both our actors are always in the middle of the shot, the
shots then zoom in before changing to ensure the main aspect of the music video
is captured fully. By doing this it makes the shots end on the most important part
of the video we want acknowledged.
The costumes aren’t unique as they are very simple but this was to ensure nothing
took away the attention from the message of the shots. The costumes are very
controlled throughout as we use white for our model Lilly as she is portrayed to be
innocent and pure yet there is ambiguity on whether she is alive or not therefore
white links to angels and death.
We used white for our male model so he would stand out in a dark room yet we
also used black to symbolise his depression as the connotations for black are
depression and eeriness.

Technical aspect of a music video
Andrew says that the technical aspect helps to hold the music video together
through the use of mise-en-scene, special effect, sound and editing.
Lighting and colour helps to set the mood for the music video and create emphasis
on significant parts of the song to create a dramatic effect and thrill the audience.
Mise-en-scene is also vital to the production of the music video, it can help the
artist fain authentication and also make his work appear professional.
The beats of the song are also very useful as they can help to create effective cuts
that go with the rhythm of the song to make the music video look more
entertaining.

Our mise-en-scene was very basic to show the isolation of our model due to his
depression and loss of Lilly. However the use of the alcohol bottle becomes iconic
as it represents the message as is in many of the shots.
The lighting and colours help to set the mood as we used very dark rooms with
very controlled lighting. In some of our shots the contrast of dark and light created
a blue tone which is common in videos that show depression and deep thought as
‘feeling blue’ links to this. Our controlled lighting in the dark room with Connor
ensures the light illuminates his face as it is his mind that is causing the problems
as he is drinking to forget.
The beat of the song is successful as a lot of our transitions happen when the
lyrics start or when the beat begins to change, this is evident in the chorus as each
word causes a change of shot. This physically and visually links the footage to the
lyrics and makes it look more professional and entertaining.

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