Reflecting back on the AS year

In June, we were given a group of music videos to choose from, from which we had to reproduce a 40 second section of it. My group and I chose Britney Spears's song 'One more time' as we were all girls and we thought it could be quite funny. At the beginning, we were not so confident but we managed to work around that. 

These were some of the technical skills we learnt:
- How to use base tracks on Soundtrack 
- How to put our base tracks onto Final Cut Pro
- Editing according to the base tracks and making sure our lips were moving in time with the music
- What shot types would be more appropriate for a music video
- When to put appropriate effects on the videos like fade ins/outs

We tried to do the routine in the music video and we shot in two different locations. In the classroom as well as in the corridor. We decided that we would bring in the costumes and we thought of the ideal clothing for the video and tried to make it as close to the real video as possible. 

I really enjoyed filming 'One more time' and it really helped me in understanding the use of base tracks and how crucial they are when making a music video. 

This is my music video:





We were then asks to make ancillary work for our song and artist and that was when we each created our own digipaks for our artists. This is my one: 

In making the digipak, I learnt how to use Photoshop effectively and I managed to create this product.  

(RESEARCH) Laura Mulvey's Theory

Laura Mulvey's Theory (1992)

                
Laura Mulvey stated: ''In a world ordered sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split into the active male and the passive female. The ''Male Gaze'' projects it's fantasy onto the female figure which is style accordingly''. From this I come to the understanding that she feels that the music industry exploits females in music videos to appeal to males because generally the music industry is controlled by men. In genres like Hip Hop and RnB Laura Mulvey's idea is highly visible. For example in Sisqo - Thong Song music video, all women are dressed down and often the camera focuses on certain parts of the female body to attract male attention.

(RESEARCH) Carol Vernalises Theory

Carol Vernalises  Theory

Carol Vernalis studies editing and camerawork in music videos and found that edits in music videos are used much more frequently when compared to films. She also stated that many music videos contain disjuncture a rhythmic basis.

Her main observations were:

• The rules of continuity editing are often broken in Music Videos
• Edits may be really obvious to draw attention to themselves (Wipes and Special Effects)
• Jump cuts are used frequently in Music Videos
• Base tracks are often used to give the Music Video some form of structure

      Therefore film editing and music editing differ from each other because films often follow the continuity editing conventions, whereas music videos generally break them.

Treasure by Bruno Mars uses wipes and plenty of jump cuts throughout the music video, which shows that Carols Vernalises theory can be applied to pop music.

(RESEARCH) Andrew Godwins Theory

Andrew Godwin's Theory

                  Andrew Godwin believed that common Narrative Analyses could not be applied to some music genres videos. For example he stated the pop music approached narrative in music videos from a different angle when compared with novels and films. His three reasons behind his theory were that; Pop videos were built around songs, in pop videos the singer acts as the narrator but also as a character and finally that the singer often looks directly into the camera, which is not present in films. He stated that the structure of Pop videos often relies on repetition and shots are repeated in the same way how songs consist of repeated choruses and lines. Because of this he was able to say that Pop songs and videos have no form of closure or ending and often take audiences to a climatic part of a song before fading away and repeating the same process.

                  Godwin also felt that there was only three common factors between songs and there music videos and they were:

·      
           Illustration - This is where the music video tells the story of the song's lyrics. An example of this I have found is a song called ''My Story'' by South London Rappers Krept and Konan

·       Amplification - This is when videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning

·       Disjuncture - This is when there is little connection between the song and what is shown in the music video. For example Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror.      

  

Andrew Godwin also touched on the topic of the ''Male Gaze'' in his article. He stated that Music videos often present women as objects of male desire and it is commonly found in genres like Hip Hop and RnB. An example of this is the Music video for 2 Chainz - Birthday Song.



Also music videos often try to appeal to a wide audience, without alienating the main target audience. For example older artists could be portrayed to be younger in videos so people of that generation can still identify them. Lastly he stated that Music videos which have been written for films often incorporate images from the movie. An example of this is Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On and The Titanic.

(RESEARCH) What Is The Function of A Music Video

What is the Function of a Music Video?

                  The main function of a music video is to promote the artist and portray them in a certain way for audiences. Alongside this music videos can also be used to reinforce a certain song genre, by following the typical conventions of the genre. For example common genres like pop will often consist of bright colours and glossy finishing, whereas Indi music will be less mainstream and have an ''average Joe'' feel to them. As many things in the music industry are profit orientated, you will be surprised that the majority of music videos are profitless which suggests that making money is not one of the main incentives when producing music videos. In fact a lot of the time, the productions costs are paid by the artist staring in the music video. However when artist are starting out they have very little control over the content of their video's, which means it is down to the Record label to portray the artist in whatever light they wish to.

                  In class I analysed Rizzle Kicks- Lost Generation to see if the general music video conventions were followed accurately. Jumps Cuts, Obvious Edits, Camera in time with music, Eye contact, Repeated shots, base tracks and Editing to rhythm are all typical conventions found in music videos. From looking at the video I found that there was a good use of jump cuts and also the artist made eye contact with the camera a number of times. Camera movement and Editing was in perfect timing with the music and a number of repeated shots and close ups where shown throughout the video. This shows that the video followed the main conventions which is why I chose to blog about it.

(RESEARCH) Copy Right Permission

My Clearance Email to Wretch32

My Clearance Email to Kyla

Reflecting On AS Media

Reflecting Back On AS

During my AS year, I learnt and developed many technical skills when studying media:

• Camera Work Skills
• Editing (Final Cut Pro)
• Sound and Lighting Skills
• Blogging Skills
• Base Track Editing
• Framing Skills

Here is my Summer work Music Video:

 

      Here is my Digipack: