- the camera always focusses on the main atrist/band
- mainly close ups and medium shots are used to show who the main artist is
- lighting
- the lyrics always follow the visuals
- lip synicing
- the song is usuall 3-4mins long
- colours help set the mood and also portray the genre
- the pace of editing follows the beat
- song is played in back
- range of camera angles used to focus on main things to help portray genre
- lighting
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Conventions of a music video
Tilly and the Wall
Tilly and the Wall are a indie-pop group who consider themselves as a band who instead of having a drummer have a tap dancer.
The genre of the band is indie-pop which is a niche in the market and only appeals to a very small audience as most people prefer other genres. For this reason I am going to change the bands genre from indie-pop to pop which has a larger target audience.
Also their look as in clothes and hair does not appeal to much of an audience so I am going to give them a makeover making there wardrobe brighter and more modern instead of dark and dull. this will attract more of an audience as it is more appealing to a larger target audience.
The marketing will also be improved as the band is not popular and not recognized.
To make it more popular there music will be playing on more popular radio stations such as kiss 100, capital fm and radio 1. Also posters will be hung up to inform the audience about the band and make the band more familiar to the audience.
The genre of the band is indie-pop which is a niche in the market and only appeals to a very small audience as most people prefer other genres. For this reason I am going to change the bands genre from indie-pop to pop which has a larger target audience.
Also their look as in clothes and hair does not appeal to much of an audience so I am going to give them a makeover making there wardrobe brighter and more modern instead of dark and dull. this will attract more of an audience as it is more appealing to a larger target audience.
The marketing will also be improved as the band is not popular and not recognized.
To make it more popular there music will be playing on more popular radio stations such as kiss 100, capital fm and radio 1. Also posters will be hung up to inform the audience about the band and make the band more familiar to the audience.
History of Music Videos (1910-present)
1900 : Edison invents the gramophone in the USA: first shift from music as a solely live and audiovisual experience to record on various forms of disc.
1920 : Fischinger experiments with sound/vision synchronisation on film
1927 : First sound film, The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, USA)
1930 : Creation of first 'soundies'
1939 : Introduction of the Panarom
1940 : Peak period of MGM Hollywood musical
1954 : Elvis Presley records Thats all Right (Mama)
1960 : Scopitone introduced in France
1963 : UK's first music TV programme, Ready Steady Go (ITV)
1964 : Top of the Pops TV programme begins (BBC)
The Beatles release the film and album, A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, UK)
1966 : The Monkees' TV show starts on NBC in USA
1967 : The Beatles release TV promos for Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever
1975 : Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody (Bruce Gowers)
1977 : Saturday NIght Fever (John Badham, USA)
1979: Buggles: Video Killed the Radio Star (Russell Mulcahy)
1980: David Bowie: Ashes to Ashes (David Mallet and David Bowie)
1981 : Pop Clicks on Nickelodeon
MTV starts
Duran Duran : Girls on Film (Kevin Godley and Lol Creme)
1983: Michael Jackson: Thriller (John Landis)
Begining of country music Television (CMT)
1984 : Music Box starts in Europe
MTV Video Music Awards launched
1985 : VH1 begins
MTV taken over by Viacom
Live Aid
1986 : Dire Straits: Money for Nothing (Steve Barron) is top video
1987 : MTV-Europe (MTV-E) launched, broadcasting to 1.6m homes
Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer (Stephen Johnson), wins best director award
1988 : MTV-Europe achieves 2.5m subscribers
1989 : MTV-Europe reaches 6.7m homes
Live Broadcast form Moscow Peace Festival
Madonna Express Yourself (David Fincher), wins best director award
1990 : Madonna: Vogue (David Fincher), wins best director award
Launch of MTV-unplugged
1991 : Madonna : Justify My Love (Jean-Baptiste Mondino)
1992 : MTV launches The Real World, a fly-on-the-wall documentary following the lives of seven people sharing a New York loft
1993 : MTV launches TV series Beavies and Butthead
1994 : REM: Everybody Hurts (Jake Scott), wins best director award
Launch of VH1 in UK
Launch of MTV-Europe Music Award
1997 : MTV UK and Ireland launches as stand-alone channel
1998 : Launch of Celebrity Deathmatch
1999 : Fatboy Slim: Praise You (Spike Jonze), wins best director award
2000 : Launch of Jackass
2001: Lauch of MTV Dance
1920 : Fischinger experiments with sound/vision synchronisation on film
1927 : First sound film, The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, USA)
1930 : Creation of first 'soundies'
1939 : Introduction of the Panarom
1940 : Peak period of MGM Hollywood musical
1954 : Elvis Presley records Thats all Right (Mama)
1960 : Scopitone introduced in France
1963 : UK's first music TV programme, Ready Steady Go (ITV)
1964 : Top of the Pops TV programme begins (BBC)
The Beatles release the film and album, A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, UK)
1966 : The Monkees' TV show starts on NBC in USA
1967 : The Beatles release TV promos for Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever
1975 : Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody (Bruce Gowers)
1977 : Saturday NIght Fever (John Badham, USA)
1979: Buggles: Video Killed the Radio Star (Russell Mulcahy)
1980: David Bowie: Ashes to Ashes (David Mallet and David Bowie)
1981 : Pop Clicks on Nickelodeon
MTV starts
Duran Duran : Girls on Film (Kevin Godley and Lol Creme)
1983: Michael Jackson: Thriller (John Landis)
Begining of country music Television (CMT)
1984 : Music Box starts in Europe
MTV Video Music Awards launched
1985 : VH1 begins
MTV taken over by Viacom
Live Aid
1986 : Dire Straits: Money for Nothing (Steve Barron) is top video
1987 : MTV-Europe (MTV-E) launched, broadcasting to 1.6m homes
Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer (Stephen Johnson), wins best director award
1988 : MTV-Europe achieves 2.5m subscribers
1989 : MTV-Europe reaches 6.7m homes
Live Broadcast form Moscow Peace Festival
Madonna Express Yourself (David Fincher), wins best director award
1990 : Madonna: Vogue (David Fincher), wins best director award
Launch of MTV-unplugged
1991 : Madonna : Justify My Love (Jean-Baptiste Mondino)
1992 : MTV launches The Real World, a fly-on-the-wall documentary following the lives of seven people sharing a New York loft
1993 : MTV launches TV series Beavies and Butthead
1994 : REM: Everybody Hurts (Jake Scott), wins best director award
Launch of VH1 in UK
Launch of MTV-Europe Music Award
1997 : MTV UK and Ireland launches as stand-alone channel
1998 : Launch of Celebrity Deathmatch
1999 : Fatboy Slim: Praise You (Spike Jonze), wins best director award
2000 : Launch of Jackass
2001: Lauch of MTV Dance
Definitions
Star Image: "A star image is an image constructed from a range of materials" (Richard Dyre 1979)
For Pop Music these materials include the songs (their lyrical themes and musical structures/genres), the record covers (singles and albums and the image of the star they present), the record covers (singles and albums and the image of the star they present), media coverage (from interviews about career and private life through to tabloid gossip), live performance (the image through the stage show) and arguably the most significantly the music videos, which may draw upon the image presented in each of the other aspects.
Each video may also draw upon its predecessor both in reinforcing the star's existing image and in taking the i mage on further, perhaps in new directions. Thus even more than Hollywood films may be seen as vehicles for their starts, music videos will act as a showcase for their talents and a significant part in the construction and maintenance of their image.
Voyeurism:
This idea comes from Freud, and has been much used in Media Studies, particularly in explaining the gendered pleasures of cinema. Broadly it refers to the idea of looking in order to gain sexual pleasure. It has been argued that the male viewers gaze at the screen is geared to notions of voyeurism in that it is a powerful controlling gaze at the objectified female on display. In music promos, as we have seen, the female on display has been a staple element through the Scopitones to Duran Du ran and beyond. Godwin argues that the female performer will frequently be objected in this fashion, often through a combination of camerawork and editing with fragmented body shots emphasising a sexualised treatment of the star. in male performance videos too the idea of voyeuristic treatment of the female body is often apparent with the use of dancers as adornments flattering the male star ego.
The idea becomes more complex when we see the male body on display and we might raise questions about how females viewers is invited to respond. Equally, the apparently more powerful independant female artists of recent years, from Madonna onwards, have added to the complexity of the gaze by being at once sexually provocative and apparently in control. This offers interesting questions for discussion of the range of audience experienced of music videos and the contradictory meanings they may evoke.
The idea of voyeurism is also frequently evident in music video through a system of screens within screens-characters shown watching performers or others on television, via webcam, as images on a video camera screen on CCTV within the world of the narrative. Indeed the proliferation of such motifs has reached a point where it has become almost an obsession in music promos.
Intertexualtity:
The music video is often described as 'postmodern', a slippery term which is sometimes used as a substitute for intertextuality. Broadly, of we see music promos as frequently drawing upon existing texts in order to spark recognition in the audience, we have a working definition of 'intertextuality'. Not all audiences will necessarily spot the reference and this need not massively detract from their pleasure in the text itself, but it is often argued that greater pleasure will be derived by those who know the reference and are somehow flattered by this.
It is perhaps not surprising that so many music videos draw upon cinemas as a starting point, since hteir directors are often film school graduates looking to move on eventually to the film industry itself. From Madonna's 'Material Girl; (Mary Lambert 1985, drawing on 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend;) to 2Pac and Dr Dre's 'California Love' (Hype Williams 1996, drawing on 'Mad Max') there are many examples of cinematic references which dominate music video. Television is often a point of reference too, as in The Beastie Boys' spoof cop show titles sequence for Sabotage (Spike Jonze 1994) or REMs recent news show parody 'Bad Day' (Tim Hope 2003).
John Stewart sees visual reference in music video coming from a range of sources, though the three most frequent are perhaps cinema, fashion and art photography. Fashion sometimes takes the form of specific catwalk references and sometime even the use of supermodels, as by George Michael in both 'Father Figure' (Morahan/Michael 1988) and 'Freedom' (Fincher 1990). Probably the most memorable example of reference to fashion photography is Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love' (Donovan 1986), parodied many times for its use of mannequin style females in the band fronted by a besuited Palmer. Shania Twain copied it for her 'Man I feel like a woman' (Paul Boyd 1999) and Tamra Davis directed a $350 parody of it for Tone Lac's 'Wild Thing' (1988).
For Pop Music these materials include the songs (their lyrical themes and musical structures/genres), the record covers (singles and albums and the image of the star they present), the record covers (singles and albums and the image of the star they present), media coverage (from interviews about career and private life through to tabloid gossip), live performance (the image through the stage show) and arguably the most significantly the music videos, which may draw upon the image presented in each of the other aspects.
Each video may also draw upon its predecessor both in reinforcing the star's existing image and in taking the i mage on further, perhaps in new directions. Thus even more than Hollywood films may be seen as vehicles for their starts, music videos will act as a showcase for their talents and a significant part in the construction and maintenance of their image.
Voyeurism:
This idea comes from Freud, and has been much used in Media Studies, particularly in explaining the gendered pleasures of cinema. Broadly it refers to the idea of looking in order to gain sexual pleasure. It has been argued that the male viewers gaze at the screen is geared to notions of voyeurism in that it is a powerful controlling gaze at the objectified female on display. In music promos, as we have seen, the female on display has been a staple element through the Scopitones to Duran Du ran and beyond. Godwin argues that the female performer will frequently be objected in this fashion, often through a combination of camerawork and editing with fragmented body shots emphasising a sexualised treatment of the star. in male performance videos too the idea of voyeuristic treatment of the female body is often apparent with the use of dancers as adornments flattering the male star ego.
The idea becomes more complex when we see the male body on display and we might raise questions about how females viewers is invited to respond. Equally, the apparently more powerful independant female artists of recent years, from Madonna onwards, have added to the complexity of the gaze by being at once sexually provocative and apparently in control. This offers interesting questions for discussion of the range of audience experienced of music videos and the contradictory meanings they may evoke.
The idea of voyeurism is also frequently evident in music video through a system of screens within screens-characters shown watching performers or others on television, via webcam, as images on a video camera screen on CCTV within the world of the narrative. Indeed the proliferation of such motifs has reached a point where it has become almost an obsession in music promos.
Intertexualtity:
The music video is often described as 'postmodern', a slippery term which is sometimes used as a substitute for intertextuality. Broadly, of we see music promos as frequently drawing upon existing texts in order to spark recognition in the audience, we have a working definition of 'intertextuality'. Not all audiences will necessarily spot the reference and this need not massively detract from their pleasure in the text itself, but it is often argued that greater pleasure will be derived by those who know the reference and are somehow flattered by this.
It is perhaps not surprising that so many music videos draw upon cinemas as a starting point, since hteir directors are often film school graduates looking to move on eventually to the film industry itself. From Madonna's 'Material Girl; (Mary Lambert 1985, drawing on 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend;) to 2Pac and Dr Dre's 'California Love' (Hype Williams 1996, drawing on 'Mad Max') there are many examples of cinematic references which dominate music video. Television is often a point of reference too, as in The Beastie Boys' spoof cop show titles sequence for Sabotage (Spike Jonze 1994) or REMs recent news show parody 'Bad Day' (Tim Hope 2003).
John Stewart sees visual reference in music video coming from a range of sources, though the three most frequent are perhaps cinema, fashion and art photography. Fashion sometimes takes the form of specific catwalk references and sometime even the use of supermodels, as by George Michael in both 'Father Figure' (Morahan/Michael 1988) and 'Freedom' (Fincher 1990). Probably the most memorable example of reference to fashion photography is Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love' (Donovan 1986), parodied many times for its use of mannequin style females in the band fronted by a besuited Palmer. Shania Twain copied it for her 'Man I feel like a woman' (Paul Boyd 1999) and Tamra Davis directed a $350 parody of it for Tone Lac's 'Wild Thing' (1988).
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