Counted Shots

The pop video I chose to look at was What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction. This is quite a fast paced upbeat song so I expected it to have a very large amount of shots used. After counting, the song had around 150 shots, as the song was 3.27mintues I personally thought it would have had more. However, many of the shots were tracking shots which kept it interesting for the audience and they also used the fade in and out editing effects. This is what managed to keep the video interesting, rather than just switching from one to the other. The video included a variety of shots, such as an establishing shot, tracking shots, high angle, low angle, close ups and medium shots. The video was a mixture of narrative and performance so the shots used helped to portray this.

Counted shots

The pop video I chose to count how many shots there were was the song 'Lightning' by The Wanted, this song is a very typical pop song and fits under that music genre. The song is 3.46minutes long and in total has around just under 200 different shots throughout the whole music video. The song is very fast paced and upbeat and therefore the large amount of shots used is a reasonable number as if there were say around 100 shots the audience would be likely to get bored as the video isn't as fast paced as the song.

There were many different shots used during the video such as tracking shots, medium, close up, long and extreme close ups - the variety of shots helped the audience keep pa e with the song. They also added affect to the narrative as th narrative seemed to be about living life and enjoying it, therefore the variety of shots added excitement, which worked with the beat of the song. The audience would remain entertained as there would always be something new to look at within seconds.

Counted Shots

The pop video I chose to count the shots in was James Morrison - I Wont Let You Go.
This is a contemporary song which is very mellow and slow, so I didnt expect it to have as many shots as it did in it.
Overall, it had 118 shots throughout the 4 minute video.
The video included a variety of shots including establishing shot, high angle, low angle, close ups, medium shots and arial shots, this made the music video more interesting and the shots helped to tell a narrative, and to keep the audience interested, as it is a slow song if there wasnt a variety of shots then the audience would have got bored and this would therefore create less sales for the artist.

Mick Jagger + Costumes

In the 1960's Mick Jagger worked his way into becoming a world known fashion icon, his gaunt look became undeniably synonymous with the term, 'rock star'. The Beatles were around at the same time, being the main fashion icons with their clean cut image and music, the Rolling Stones invaded with the complete opposite. Hard rock and a bad boy rebel image.

Mick Jagger has a very slim figure and is not really defined as a 'manly' character. The iconic fashion that was known was having shaggy hair, earrings, guy liner, lace and rhinestones and super super tight clothing such as skinny jeans and tight fitting t-shirts. Jagger was the ultimate poster boy for sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

For our main character who aims to look like Mick Jagger we were looking at our character having dark skinny jeans or leather pants, to have tight clothing is key. Along with that a contrasting rocker belt and a tight fitting t-shirt or open chested shirt - fit is key!

Ideas For Music Video

We chose between 4 songs for our music video:
Use Somebody by Kings Of Leon


Bright Lights Bigger City by Cee Lo Green


Lets Go Surfing by The Drums


Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5



However, as soon as we heard the song Moves Like Jagger, we knew we wanted to do it as we wanted to do a very fast song to make it interesting but also challenging. Also, it is a contemporary song that is very popular and would appeal to older teenagers, just like ourselves, so we would be able to think of ideas easily. We straight away got planning the type of people to use, the costume, the setting, and other aspects of mise-en-scene.

Narrative
We only want a small part of our music video to contain the narrative, however we shall have clips throughout. We will switch from reality to dream. The reality is that the main character is a Mick Jagger wannabe, and practices singing and dancing like him in an empty theatre, while wearing similar clothes to Mick Jagger.

Performance
Within the performance, we are having the main character lipsyncing and dancing on stage while other characters are dancing around him. For the start of the song, there is whistling so we are doing close ups of different girls lips so they will also be lipsyncing.

Costume
Mick Jagger had a very unique fashion taste, for example wearing very skinny jeans so we want to recreate this in the Mick Jagger impersonator he will be wearing claret skin tight trousers and a fur coat to fit in with the 'American 70's' look.

The girl dancers will be wearing 'American/Retro/Vintage' clothing such as baggy vest tops, high waisted shorts, etc.

Settings
For our performance we want to get a theatre, so that it creates the right atmosphere and shows the contrast between dream and reality. We want to start with a bad stage that is empty and dead, and then transform it to look really impressive to fit the narrative.

We also want to shoot the ending scenes in London, as it is vibrant and lively, so it will create the right effect. We are planning to shoot in Piccadilly and Covent Garden. This way we can have real life crowd reactions from the general public.

Influenced by other music videos

During our research process and thinking of ideas process, we had possible ideas that have been used in other music videos.
With one of our ideas we knew we wanted to use a radio or boombox however we did not know how to shot it. We remembered how the recent song 'Swagger Jagger' by Cher Lloyd incorporated a boombox in to the music video so when we watched the music video we watched how she used it and how they shot it to get ideas of our own. We realised that we wanted to go for the same effect as having the boombox being held and then turning the boombox on to start up the song, however as we are going for a vintage/retro look we are not going to include an ipod within the video like what Cher Lloyd uses.

Our other influence was also High School Music 3 - I Want It All, this was because our idea for our music video was to switch between dream and reality, in the reality it is the wannabe Mick Jagger copying his style and singing to an empty theatre, however in the dream it is him performing to a crowd with dancers and everyone cheering him, this will compare the wannabe Mick Jagger, to Mick Jagger himself. This is exactly what happens in the video for 'I Want It All' as they use reality at the start of the video, then they switch to dream, where they are 'worshipped' by everyone. 

The Pitch

Evie: In our pitch we were the second group, we planned to just talk about our ideas for our music video instead of doing an actual powerpoint presentation, this would help us cos then otherwise we would of been reading from the board which would not be as interesting, also this would help to put our ideas across and elaborate on them aswell.
In the pitch, Stephanie told all the basic information and facts for example the artist, the song, and the record label, Bijal explained our ideas of what we would like to be in the music video, I explained the audience we were aiming it at and also the mood and atmosphere we would like to create and Louise explained the mise en scene elements for example the costume n settings.
We feel that the pitch went well, however we should of made it a little bit longer and gone in to depth about the exact settings we were planning on using and also could have included more information for example the songs we could of chosen instead, however we went straight in to pitching our idea and didnt use any basic information.
The audience asked us a few questions for example they asked us on how we planned on getting our location we are planning which is a theatre and if we had any back up in which we had an answer already prepared as we had already researched and thought about where we would do it or where we would do it if we couldnt get a theatre. Also the audience made us think about how by just using performance in the song would make it still exciting in which case we realised the editing needs to be fast and cut to the beat of the song, which luckily it is a very fast song so that the audience don't lose focus and that they dont get bored easily.
This pitch was very helpful to us as it gave us a chance to overlook our ideas as a whole and we were happy with the response we got off of the audience as they seem to have liked the idea which is good as they would be the target audience for the music video.

Louise: Our group was the second one up to show our ideas for our music video. Firstly we played the song to the audience, their reactions seems quite good. We then explained the idea behind the real song and then our interpretation of the song.stephanie introduced the music label and the group who performed the song, evie explained the atmosphere and target audience, bijal explained the idea and i expained costume and setting. The audience liked the idea of an upbeat video. They asked questions about casting, locations, costume and the overall idea behind the movie which fortunatly we had already planned in preperation for the pitch. The pitch made us realise that we need to develop our ideas in more detail.

Stephanie: When presenting the pitch our group was second to show our ideas. To start with we played the song to the audience and they seemed to enjoy the song; this could be because the target audience is aimed at your age (17-18years old). I then introduced the song, who performed it and their music label. Evie went on to explain the atmosphere and mood we wanted our video to create – this being a fin energetic video and what our target audience is. Bijal explained our ideas for the video and Louise described the props, setting and costumes we want to use. The audience then asked questions, mostly on casting, locations, costumes and overall idea of our video. As we had already researched most of these things it wasn’t to hard answering the questions and our feedback seemed to be positive – the audience liked the idea of our video. We felt our pitch went well however it helped us to realise that we need to develop our ideas deeper so we know exactly what is going to happen.


Bijal: we had to pitch our idea to the group in order to show them our idea. We started by playing the song on its own to the group, allowed them to know the song, and everyone seemed to enjoy the song, our target audience was young adults aged around 18-24 therefore this group fit in the target demographic. Stephanie introduced the song to the audience, and the record label, Evie then explained the atmosphere and mood that we wanted to create in our video. This is important to fit the genre of the song, which was pop, so we wanted the video to be energetic and fun. I then went on to explain the ideas we had for the video, regarding the narrative and performance and lip syncing, this allowed the group to have a general idea of our music video in their head. Louise then described the props, setting and costumes we intended to use, this is also important to fit to the genre. The group were then allowed to ask question and give us their ideas and feedback in relation to our pitch. We were mainly asked questions regarding casting, locations and the overall idea for our video. We were all confident with the ideas that we had for our music video therefore it wasn't hard to reply to the group, and in the end everyone seemed to like our main ideas for the video. I believe the pitch was successful and it helped us realise where we could develop our ideas.

Music in the 80's

In the 1980's the music video 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson came out. The music video was completely different to other music videos. It subverted typical music video conventions, the thriller video starts with credits. This makes it seems more like a short film rather than a music video. The video, directed by John Landis intentionally doesn't resemble a music video and subverts normal music video conventions. One example of the conventions it subverts is the length of the video - it is around 13 -14 minutes long, whereas usually music videos are around 3-4 minutes long. The music video also stops at points along the video for the narrative to take place. The narrative plays a strong part in the video and there is non diagetic sound in the form of a voice over. The thriller video is one the most important music videos for Michael Jackson personally and the 1980's.

Another major event that happened in the 1980's music industry was the launch of music television and the channel MTV, first launched in the USA in 1981 and then introduced to Europe in 1985. This gave access to music videos and music television constantly, and this saw record sales soaring from the launch of this as MTV was a form of promotion. The first music video shown on the launch of MTV in Europe was 'Money For Noting' by Dire Straits. It's easy to see why this video was chosen as it strongly promoted MTV as the lyrics contained the word 'MTV' - 'i want my MTV'. It also featured clips from other music videos to promote them as well.

Music in the 70's

Music in the 1970s saw the rise of popular soft rock and pop rock and famous artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and The Eagles. But one of the main artist that rose in this era was the Rolling Stones. They were a British rock band and were always in the public eye due to their way of life and sex, drugs & rock and roll attitude they portrayed.They were also the first group to use life performaces as their music video such as stone in the park




This was never done in music before but it gave people the chance to see their favorite bands live without having to pay to see them or actually go to the event. This was also a cheaper way of promoting their new music as they didnt have to pay huge amounts for music video.

Music in the 90's

By the 90's having a music video became essential, with the launch of MTV in 1981; artists could advertise themselves worldwide by their videos. Music videos then became a media product in their own right. However production costs were very expensive which some artists may not have been able to afford – artists became very ambitious, making videos a priority. Not long after Michael Jackson released ‘Thriller’, this on its own being a controversy, he then released ‘The Earth Song’ and ‘Black and White’. These two songs both followed some of the features of ‘Thriller’, firstly being that they were over 6minutes long.
During ‘The Earth Song’ we have to wait 1minute after the song starts before any singing actually begins. However the music video does still follow some music conventions, this includes; performance, lip syncing, a narrative and as it’s quite a slow song the cuts are quite slow paced.
http://youtu.be/XAi3VTSdTxU
On the other hand when ‘Black or White’ starts it could be confused as a short film. The name of the song comes up in big, the song going straight to a narrative followed by dialogue – this isn’t a usual convention. After 2minutes of waiting the music actually starts, but you have to wait another minute for any singing to actually begin. Performance is a big part of the video and is used throughout; you can also see how editing has developed since the first video ‘Money For Nothing' by Dire Straits was aired on MTV.
http://youtu.be/F2AitTPI5U0

Music in the 60's

The music in the 1960's saw the growth of the rock and pop culture within music.
'Youth orientated culture' this is represented in the film A Hard Days Night directed by Richard Lester in 1963. This film shows how popular The Beatles were in their era this is shown in the opening sequence when theyarevhased through the crowds by hundreds of young girls, this shows their success.
The 'Cant Buy Me Love' sequence paved the way for future music video conventions by introducing fast paced editing which was cut to the beat of the song which contemporary music videos still use this convention to this day.
The music conventions used in the 'Cant Buy Me Love' sequence in A Hard Days Night includes
- Narrative
- Variety of shots
- Cut to the beat
- Fast cuts
- Lighting reflects mood
- Black and White - time of era
- Cross cutting
- Costume- innocent - likeable

The decade showed two major bands compete for record sales - The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, both of which were of completely different genres. The Rolling Stones introduced the idea of 'concert films' which was live performance shown as a music video, this was in 1969.

Music video research

Lil Wayne - How To Love

The conventions used in Lil Wayne's music video is
- narrative and performance
- lip-syncing
- cut to the beat
- slow paced editing
- variety of shots
- engaging narrative - tells a story
- performance - dark lighting, dark storyline
- appropriate casting
- music stops at one point - dialogue - storyline
- fade in fade out transitions - fits the pace of the song
- variety of settings and costumes