In the studio/Practicing filming music promos and lip syncing

On Tuesday morning, we had a block morning devoted entirely to media and practicing filming people lip syncing to the song 'Rather Be - Clean Bandit'. When we came into the studio, three different cameras were set up, all Sony NX5 but one on tracks so that we could have a go with tracking someone.

The three different cameras had different sets. So one had a green screen, one had a sofa set up with a wooden back drop and one had clear, see-through flats with colourful lights behind.



We got into three groups and between us, each camera we came to, we would take it in turns using and practicing with the cameras, being filmed etc.

I had a go both filming and being in front of the camera. It was good to get the experience of both because I now know what I'm doing for A2 and it was a good experience to practice in front of the camera so that if I had friends in A2 doing music vids and asked me I would be more comfortable to do it.

When editing all of our filmed bits, being able to see all the different sets made the video look very interesting and cool as they all contrasted. Making the music video was really interesting. We edited them on Final Cut Pro 7 on the Apple Mac computers. To keep the music video interesting and up beat to match the song, we had to keep the length of shots different. I also had to practice matching up the video with the song. The audio track of the song was pasted in Final Cut, and it was our job to pick and choose the bits of filming we wanted to use and to then match it up with the timing on the clapperboard in order to allow us to synchronise the videos with the audio track.

This is some filming me and my group did behind the filming of our little lip syncing/music video practice exercise... Credit to Toby for pasting it all together:



This is the Final Cut:

Literal videos...

A literal music video, also called a literal video version, is a parody of an official music video clip in which the lyrics have been replaced with lyrics that describe the visuals in the video.

Here are some examples of ones I have found on youtube:

Album Cover - Birdy

 

This album is from the artist Birdy. The over all image of this is quite indie and raw. The font of her name, which is also the albums title, is very youthful and plain. The image helps to express her youthfulness; she is dressed in a fashionable, but young way and there is no over-the top, fake image being shown. The idea of the album cover is to just show her as an independent, un-synthetic artist, however, there is a particular image being demonstrated here. Due to make-up artists, stylists etc her look is very vintage and the background also helps suggest this. The cover uses a lot of autumnal colours, with muted tones which is a recognisable colour code for artists doing the genre of folk/singer/song writer. She is slightly distanced and her hair covers her face almost hiding some of her identity from us. The fact the album cover is so simplistic makes us focus more just on her simplicity and makes us realise the music within the album is the bigger focus over all. 

Album Cover - Rihanna

 

The artist Rihanna uses a very synthetic image; we see from the editing/lighting of the picture, it highlights the silhouette of her figure highlighting her curves. Her body language and facial expressions shows her very sexually. Her outfit, positioning of hair and hand placement all help highlight a sexual image. The purpose of this image is to show her as a young, sexy artist. Her eye line is looking down at us which again proposes a very sexy image. 

 

The font beneath her name reads 'good girl gone bad'. Again, this is creating a particular image for Rihanna; it is creating the idea that she is sexual, rebellious and very attractive. The look of Rihanna helps with the selling of the music.  

'Stan - Eminem'

This music video follows a closer narrative structure. It is all based around the star image, of whom which is Eminem.

We see from the video a very disturbed character who has a clear obsession with Eminem. We see him dye is hair, become aggressive when listening to his music etc. The narrative is about the character who idolises Eminem. We see a clear beginning, middle and end. At the beginning we see the girlfriend (Dido who features in the film) tossing and turning... she is also pregnant. We then see the boyfriend dying his hair blonde which is creating the idea that he is copying Eminem's look. Throughout the narrative we see the frustration of the boyfriend writing to Eminem about his life, relating it to Eminem's like the fact he has a father/son bad relationship as well. He gets cross with the girlfriend repeatedly and treats her badly. There is a clear dramatic irony in that we, the audience, see that the letters the boyfriend is trying to get through to Eminem don't arrive to him because they either don't get sent out properly or Eminem himself is just too busy to read the letters. This results the boyfriend crashing the car with the pregnant girlfriend in the back and killing her.

The conflict is never resolved because it results in the boyfriend never getting an answer so he kills the girlfriend, and the letter Eminem finally writes to the boyfriend is written to late. We follow the boyfriend mainly throughout the sequence as the lyrics suggest what he is feeling. We are led to relate to this character because we see that he is extremely troubled, but there is slight sympathy for him.

The idea of who is the hero/villain etc is not so clear in the sequence as we follow quite a few different conflict ideas to identify who we feel is a clear villain or a clear hero. There are 3 different conflicts being shown in this sequence: 1. the conflict of the boyfriend trying to write to Eminem, 2. the conflict of the boyfriend character with himself, and 3. the conflict between the boyfriend and the girlfriend.

Iconography, sound, mise-en-scene and music are all so important throughout the video. Iconography is used in resembling the obsession the character has for Eminem... we see him in his creepy den, which is covered in Eminem posters. The mise-en-scene helps set the mood in the video. It is very dark; this is reflected through the lighting, which in the house is dark, a sickly yellow colour, and lots of silhouettes of windows etc. They have also put in thunder and lightning and rain in the video. The music itself is vital because the lyrics help suggest the feelings of the characters, and the sound just helps add to the mood such as lightning.