For this assignment we had to imagine and create a music video. We had to make the music, write the lyrics and make a video to go with it. Although we all did a bit of everything each one of us had a specific role; Shaun was the director, Declan was the music producer, Kat was the camera person and I was the editor.
We made a rock-ish music about different horror films, and in our video we had a killer going around killing people.
During the planning of our video our group didn’t do very well because there were arguments between us but eventually we did talk and agreed on what we were doing.
My opinion about this video is that it went pretty well and it was good, I think my group worked well and I’m proud of our music video.
For the introduction of the music we saw the killer getting ready, then we had the first victim running away and getting caught and the same happened with the other 2 victims in our video. The difference between them was the location, and the second killing was seen through the victim’s eyes.
Our video could have been more interesting if we were allowed to show the killings instead of just a close up of the victim, but this way our video would have been able to be played during the day in a music channel.
On the cinematography we used lots of different shots, including close up of knives, the second victim was a bit like blair witch project, during the whole video we use references from horror films and I think that was really appealing to the audience.
I think our costume for the killer – Michael Myers mask and a tracksuit-was good it made it a bit more real, the locations were good but maybe we could have thought about somewhere other than the park to make the second killing happen. This wasn’t as good as an alleyway or a abandoned warehouse.
The editing was at a good pace and it looked good, although I was the editor I didn’t put the special effects that was Shaun because he knew how to use the after effects programme and I didn’t so I left that to him which it was pretty good in fact. The TV with a close up of his mouth singing and the colour correction he did to make everything look better and as if was night time.
In my opinion the music fits with the lyrics and they fit with the video like I said all the references from horror films make it look quite interesting.
There a few weak areas in our video, for example it doesn’t look much like a music video it looks more like a short film, after showing this to our class they said they got confused about the killings they thought there was only two, sometimes the shots were too dark and we couldn’t quite see what’s going on.
This film was meant to be to a male audience between the ages of 16-24 with an alternative lifestyle, but most people in our group actually liked it and I was pleased with their criticism. They talked about everything I just said so it was good.
This video is more narrative than performance or concept, and it doesn’t quite promote the band its job is to promote the bands image more than the actual band.
I think everything went well, if I had the chance to this again I would have thought about better locations, and filming it at night might have had a better feel to it like in horror films.
Overall I’m happy and I really enjoyed working with the people from my group.
Monday, 14 December 2009
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Pre-Production
Synopsis and treatment:
Our song is a rock-ish song, which we made. the lyrics are about various slasher serial killers for the video we'll have a serial killer getting ready and then leaving his house to kill victim number 1 then as he kills the victim an innocent person sees it happen so that person becomes victim number 2.
We've decided to do this video according to the audience of horror movies and rock music: male, 16-24 alternative lifestyle. We're thinking that our video wouldn't be able to be on telly during the day in case people found it too graphic, we're making sure there won't be much gory details so people don't find it disturbing and so we're able to have our music video going on telly during the day to a better promotion of the artist.
We’re starting by showing the killer ''getting ready'' to go out and attack, a bit like Dexter's credits. We're doing this by using close ups and stuff like bloody knives, a mask we're going to avoid showing the killers face all the way through only showing the back of the head. As the killer gets ready we see the victim as well so the audience knows that something is going to happen to the victim. Then along the video we watch the killer walking trying to find the victim till he finds him and then as someone else walks in the scene that is our second victim. We're doing kind of chase scene with each one of the victims but instead of watching from one point of view we're seeing most of it from both of the point of views. At the very end the killer goes after the camera person and kills her. For this we’re going to use lots of close ups and medium close ups we’ve decided not to use many long shots because that would allow the audience to know what’s going on and it wouldn’t be a good pop promo. The camera will be in different angles; this is to make the audience uncomfortable. The lightning is going to be sun light as we can’t film it during the night; we’re using After Effects to make our video more obscure and dark. We're only showing lip sync of the chorus and that's going top be a close up of the killer’s mouth. The editing is going to be quite quick to add more tension to it, we want it to be quite ‘’in your face’’ kind of thing so we’re sure the audience watching it is going to have it stuck in their heads. That way the Band is going to be promoted quite well.
The killer is going to be using overalls and a Michel Myers mask to look more like a slasher movie. The first victim is going to be wearing a suit so its like the killer wants to kill an important person. The second victim is going to be wearing just casual stuff because she just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We won’t see the camera's person clothes because we're just going to see the person running away from the killer.
Story board:
Shot list:
Shooting Schedule:
Our song is a rock-ish song, which we made. the lyrics are about various slasher serial killers for the video we'll have a serial killer getting ready and then leaving his house to kill victim number 1 then as he kills the victim an innocent person sees it happen so that person becomes victim number 2.
We've decided to do this video according to the audience of horror movies and rock music: male, 16-24 alternative lifestyle. We're thinking that our video wouldn't be able to be on telly during the day in case people found it too graphic, we're making sure there won't be much gory details so people don't find it disturbing and so we're able to have our music video going on telly during the day to a better promotion of the artist.
We’re starting by showing the killer ''getting ready'' to go out and attack, a bit like Dexter's credits. We're doing this by using close ups and stuff like bloody knives, a mask we're going to avoid showing the killers face all the way through only showing the back of the head. As the killer gets ready we see the victim as well so the audience knows that something is going to happen to the victim. Then along the video we watch the killer walking trying to find the victim till he finds him and then as someone else walks in the scene that is our second victim. We're doing kind of chase scene with each one of the victims but instead of watching from one point of view we're seeing most of it from both of the point of views. At the very end the killer goes after the camera person and kills her. For this we’re going to use lots of close ups and medium close ups we’ve decided not to use many long shots because that would allow the audience to know what’s going on and it wouldn’t be a good pop promo. The camera will be in different angles; this is to make the audience uncomfortable. The lightning is going to be sun light as we can’t film it during the night; we’re using After Effects to make our video more obscure and dark. We're only showing lip sync of the chorus and that's going top be a close up of the killer’s mouth. The editing is going to be quite quick to add more tension to it, we want it to be quite ‘’in your face’’ kind of thing so we’re sure the audience watching it is going to have it stuck in their heads. That way the Band is going to be promoted quite well.
The killer is going to be using overalls and a Michel Myers mask to look more like a slasher movie. The first victim is going to be wearing a suit so its like the killer wants to kill an important person. The second victim is going to be wearing just casual stuff because she just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We won’t see the camera's person clothes because we're just going to see the person running away from the killer.
Story board:
Shot list:
Shooting Schedule:
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Bibliography
Music Videos
Wikipedia (2009) Broken (seether song) [online]. Available from:
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_(Seether_song) >, [accessed on 11 November 2009].
Wikipedia (2009) Stickwitu [online]. Available from: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stickwitu >, [accessed on 11 November 2009].
Director Nigel Dick:
Wikipedia (2009) Nigel Dick [online]. Available from: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_dick >, [accessed on 12 November 2009].
Nigel Dick (2009) Biography [online]. Available from: < http://www.nigeldick.com/ >, [accessed on 12 November 2009].
IMDb (2009) Nigel Dick [online]. Available from: < http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225279/#composer >, [accessed on 12 november 2009].
Wikipedia (2009) Broken (seether song) [online]. Available from:
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_(Seether_song) >, [accessed on 11 November 2009].
Wikipedia (2009) Stickwitu [online]. Available from: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stickwitu >, [accessed on 11 November 2009].
Director Nigel Dick:
Wikipedia (2009) Nigel Dick [online]. Available from: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_dick >, [accessed on 12 November 2009].
Nigel Dick (2009) Biography [online]. Available from: < http://www.nigeldick.com/ >, [accessed on 12 November 2009].
IMDb (2009) Nigel Dick [online]. Available from: < http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225279/#composer >, [accessed on 12 november 2009].
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Task 1 - Purpose of Music Videos
A music video is a short film that is made for a complete piece of music, they were invented in the late 1960’s and they are used to promote a artist or band. Music videos have lots of different styles and techniques including: animation, live action, performance and sometimes just abstract filming, meaning the whole music video is based on concept rather than narrative or performance.
Between 1967 and 1973 the music videos grown in importance and they started to be filmed more often and they were sometimes used in gigs when the ban d couldn’t make it. a few of the first bands making music videos were:
- The Kinks - ‘’Dead End Street’’ in 1966.
- The moody blues – ‘’nights in white satin’’ in 1967.
- The Beatles started in 1965.
- The rolling stones the earliest was 1964.
The British TV show top of the pops started playing music videos in the late 1970’s and the artists could see that a good music video would make the sales of their album or single go up. After this music on tv became very popular and all the artists started doing their videos so they could promote themselves or their bands to the public eye to make more money.
When watching a music video, depending on the style of the music there are codes and conventions that have to be followed. The reason for this is to appeal to the audience that will listen and probably buy the music.
For example there are different styles of music videos such as:
- Performance is when we see the band or artist playing.
- Narrative – includes a story line
- Animation- digitally/stop frame.
If you’re watching a rock music video the chances are that there will always be performance of the band playing. This is because the audience is more likely to see their favourite’s band playing guitar or drums. Rock music videos use narrative mixed but it normally cuts from one to the other.
As if you are watching a hip-hop music video, you’re more likely to see the artist performing while the narrative goes on, these videos tend to rely more on the narrative than the actual performance.
The reason that each artist/band has they’re own style even if they play the same music genre is too appeal to the different audiences, or even the same audiences in different ways.
Overall music videos were invented to show it to people at home, and as people started to see that with good music videos the sales would go up they become a much more marketing thing to the bands. They can be referred to a slightly bigger advert to promote each band or artist.
Between 1967 and 1973 the music videos grown in importance and they started to be filmed more often and they were sometimes used in gigs when the ban d couldn’t make it. a few of the first bands making music videos were:
- The Kinks - ‘’Dead End Street’’ in 1966.
- The moody blues – ‘’nights in white satin’’ in 1967.
- The Beatles started in 1965.
- The rolling stones the earliest was 1964.
The British TV show top of the pops started playing music videos in the late 1970’s and the artists could see that a good music video would make the sales of their album or single go up. After this music on tv became very popular and all the artists started doing their videos so they could promote themselves or their bands to the public eye to make more money.
When watching a music video, depending on the style of the music there are codes and conventions that have to be followed. The reason for this is to appeal to the audience that will listen and probably buy the music.
For example there are different styles of music videos such as:
- Performance is when we see the band or artist playing.
- Narrative – includes a story line
- Animation- digitally/stop frame.
If you’re watching a rock music video the chances are that there will always be performance of the band playing. This is because the audience is more likely to see their favourite’s band playing guitar or drums. Rock music videos use narrative mixed but it normally cuts from one to the other.
As if you are watching a hip-hop music video, you’re more likely to see the artist performing while the narrative goes on, these videos tend to rely more on the narrative than the actual performance.
The reason that each artist/band has they’re own style even if they play the same music genre is too appeal to the different audiences, or even the same audiences in different ways.
Overall music videos were invented to show it to people at home, and as people started to see that with good music videos the sales would go up they become a much more marketing thing to the bands. They can be referred to a slightly bigger advert to promote each band or artist.
Task 2 - Comtemporary Music Video Research
BROKEN - SEETHER FT AMY LEE; NIGEL DICK
This is another of Nigel Dick’s music videos, and I picked it because I really like this song and it’s easy to talk about it.
This song is an acoustic version of the original and Amy lee (of Evanescence) only features on this one.
This song is about being alone and looking for someone, this is shot on a abandoned car park to show that they are both alone, they walk around searching for each other and never actually find each other. Their clothes are simple and their make up is just eye liner. Both of them have this simple image because this song is a power ballad so everything on it is quite simple.
The lightning changes quite a lot when they are shown singing we see them quite well but when they are being shot walking around they are quite dark like a shadow. (0:08 seconds)
The shots are cut to the beat, there are close ups and long panning or tilting. The close ups are quicker than the long or wide shots.
One of my favourite shots on this video is the one at 0:32 seconds where we see Amy lee walking towards the camera and sliding her hand in an abandoned car. I think this makes the video more interesting because it’s different and as they use most of slow shots and not much action in them different angles like that make the video more interesting.
The lyrics and visuals match as I said the song is about them being alone missing each other and the video is has both of them searching for each other and never finding each other, although they sing together during chorus is more like they are imagining the other one, Amy lee is wearing a pair of wings like she was an angel on Shaun Morgan’s imagination (0:47 seconds).
The shots are cut to the beat of the song, even when some of them are longer than the others. This is a narrative and performance video, we have them searching and we have them singing and the actual band in it for the instrumental bit to the end. This promotes the band as it has them playing and their vocalist singing on close ups as it promotes Amy lee as a singer and people that didn’t know her might like her.
This has characteristics of both bands; people that would listen to this song would be kind of teenagers to young adults because that’s what both bands are aimed at.
In my opinion every characteristic of this video helps on the band’s image, also it shows Amy lee as one artist instead of the band and it promotes both Seether and Amy lee. It makes the audience attracted and into the narrative because there isn’t much happening.
STICK WITH YOU– PUSSYCAT DOLLS, NIGEL DICK
This was one of my choices from a list of Nigel Dick list of videos because I know the song, the group and it would be easier to talk about it.
The song ‘’stick with you’’ by pussycat dolls, is a song about loyalty and truth in a relationship and we see the group on their life, as they are kind of sticking together till the end. During the video we also see the singer on the phone; like she’s waiting for a call and at the end she’s speaking to what we might think that could be her boyfriend this shows the audience that every relationship is important whether it’s a work, love or just a friendship. This video is about performance and narrative, we see the group singing and dancing on a stage we also see the group getting ready for their tour, packing, going on the bus getting there with all the photographers and people.
The mise-en-scene aspects are the group wearing stylish clothes, they are on a stage for most singing, and wee see them at the hotel and it’s like we’re watching their life in a way. The lightning on the narrative side is like it was daylight, there isn’t much about it, when the group is performing first is normal because it’s like they are preparing for the show but at the end there’s a spotlight pointing at them like it’s the real thing. This shows the group and their busy lifestyle.
For this video there are a lot of different shots, there’s wide shots on the chorus so we see the group dancing so the group is seen dancing to promote the whole group and not just the song, when the main singer is singing the verses there’s close ups on her to show the public that she sings and to promote the song better. The shot used for the time when they are dancing is a low angle shot it shows the group like they were on a gig and the people at home is the public that are watching the perform.
This video promotes the image of the band by showing the group the whole time, even if it’s just the singer singing sometimes that helps promoting her image and their genre. As the group is a pop group this whole video has its characteristics, the dancing, the close ups on who’d singing the stylish clothes they always seem to have fun.
This really promotes them to their audience which in my opinion are young girls from 12 to 17 who like pop and like to watch the dance routines.
The whole video shows the group, promoted them as singers and dancers it entertains the people watching while listening to the lyrics and maybe getting an opinion.
This is another of Nigel Dick’s music videos, and I picked it because I really like this song and it’s easy to talk about it.
This song is an acoustic version of the original and Amy lee (of Evanescence) only features on this one.
This song is about being alone and looking for someone, this is shot on a abandoned car park to show that they are both alone, they walk around searching for each other and never actually find each other. Their clothes are simple and their make up is just eye liner. Both of them have this simple image because this song is a power ballad so everything on it is quite simple.
The lightning changes quite a lot when they are shown singing we see them quite well but when they are being shot walking around they are quite dark like a shadow. (0:08 seconds)
The shots are cut to the beat, there are close ups and long panning or tilting. The close ups are quicker than the long or wide shots.
One of my favourite shots on this video is the one at 0:32 seconds where we see Amy lee walking towards the camera and sliding her hand in an abandoned car. I think this makes the video more interesting because it’s different and as they use most of slow shots and not much action in them different angles like that make the video more interesting.
The lyrics and visuals match as I said the song is about them being alone missing each other and the video is has both of them searching for each other and never finding each other, although they sing together during chorus is more like they are imagining the other one, Amy lee is wearing a pair of wings like she was an angel on Shaun Morgan’s imagination (0:47 seconds).
The shots are cut to the beat of the song, even when some of them are longer than the others. This is a narrative and performance video, we have them searching and we have them singing and the actual band in it for the instrumental bit to the end. This promotes the band as it has them playing and their vocalist singing on close ups as it promotes Amy lee as a singer and people that didn’t know her might like her.
This has characteristics of both bands; people that would listen to this song would be kind of teenagers to young adults because that’s what both bands are aimed at.
In my opinion every characteristic of this video helps on the band’s image, also it shows Amy lee as one artist instead of the band and it promotes both Seether and Amy lee. It makes the audience attracted and into the narrative because there isn’t much happening.
STICK WITH YOU– PUSSYCAT DOLLS, NIGEL DICK
This was one of my choices from a list of Nigel Dick list of videos because I know the song, the group and it would be easier to talk about it.
The song ‘’stick with you’’ by pussycat dolls, is a song about loyalty and truth in a relationship and we see the group on their life, as they are kind of sticking together till the end. During the video we also see the singer on the phone; like she’s waiting for a call and at the end she’s speaking to what we might think that could be her boyfriend this shows the audience that every relationship is important whether it’s a work, love or just a friendship. This video is about performance and narrative, we see the group singing and dancing on a stage we also see the group getting ready for their tour, packing, going on the bus getting there with all the photographers and people.
The mise-en-scene aspects are the group wearing stylish clothes, they are on a stage for most singing, and wee see them at the hotel and it’s like we’re watching their life in a way. The lightning on the narrative side is like it was daylight, there isn’t much about it, when the group is performing first is normal because it’s like they are preparing for the show but at the end there’s a spotlight pointing at them like it’s the real thing. This shows the group and their busy lifestyle.
For this video there are a lot of different shots, there’s wide shots on the chorus so we see the group dancing so the group is seen dancing to promote the whole group and not just the song, when the main singer is singing the verses there’s close ups on her to show the public that she sings and to promote the song better. The shot used for the time when they are dancing is a low angle shot it shows the group like they were on a gig and the people at home is the public that are watching the perform.
This video promotes the image of the band by showing the group the whole time, even if it’s just the singer singing sometimes that helps promoting her image and their genre. As the group is a pop group this whole video has its characteristics, the dancing, the close ups on who’d singing the stylish clothes they always seem to have fun.
This really promotes them to their audience which in my opinion are young girls from 12 to 17 who like pop and like to watch the dance routines.
The whole video shows the group, promoted them as singers and dancers it entertains the people watching while listening to the lyrics and maybe getting an opinion.
Task 3 - Music Video Director Research
Nigel Dick
Nigel Dick is a British film maker born on 21st March 1953, he is a film and music video director and he’s directed more than 300 videos, 25 documentaries and feature films and him and his work have won Awards.
Nigel has a degree in architecture, and he also studied and graduated at Judith Weston’s Acting for director’s class. Before all his success in the film business Nigel Dick had quite a few professions including taxi driver, architect, salesman and waiter.
Nigel Dick started working at stiff records where he worked for five years as a Press Officer. In the early 80’s he started working at Phonogram records where he directed the band aid video ‘’ do you know it’s Christmas’’; in the mid 80’s he moved to Los Angeles to direct his first feature film: ‘’ P.I. Private Investigations.’’ This was just the beginning, now he has directed many more film features and music videos.
In 2000 Nigel Dick was the director of the first made-for-MTV movie. 2GETHER which was watched by millions of people and it became TV series and its soundtrack went on the top 40 with three songs written by him.
In his career Nigel has worked with lots of artists including: Backstreet Boys, Good Charlotte, Ozzy Osbourne, Amy lee, Pussycat dolls and others. The videos he made helped selling millions of records.
After watching a few more video made by Nigel dick i started noticing the relation between them how they all look similar. He does simple videos that are good to look at. When watching them we see that the cinematography is pretty simple, is what you'd expect on music videos close ups of the artist singing shots of other stuff going on, mostly still shot here and there a camera movement but not much., then he uses the editing to make it look better, color correction, black and white stuff, lots of the shots fade into each other. The colors he uses the most are; blues, greens, reds; oranges. Depends a bit on the video and the style of song if it's a simpler video Nigel Dick will use more blues and greens if the song has more of a beat to it the oranges and red will dominate but, he'll always mix those colors mainly. He prefers to use a mix of narrative and performance to promote the artist and the music well, and the proof of this is that he has directed some of the most famous videos that exist. Nigel dick has his very own style of work that i'd define as making the artist as well as the song look and sound good. Nigel Dick's techniques are very simple and that makes all his videos have this familiar feel to them, they are all very different,they are simple but very full of energy.
If we look back to the videos I used earlier and the one recent ones, the bands/artists are always on camera there’s performance as well as the narrative but, everything within the video whether it’s props, costumes, lighting it all shows the band and it’s image. It promotes the band or artist by having close ups and showing them perform. Some videos are slightly different but I’d say he knows how to show what he needs to so the albums or singles can be sold. His methods of promoting bands and artists, Make the audience want to watch over and over again and buy the songs. A Music video is used to promote a song through images, and Nigel Dick does that not just to the song but to the band too. He's made really big hits that everyone watches like: baby one more time - Britney spears- the prove is that it sold thousands and it became a big hit.
From the examples i gave i looked at them and thought that the majority we really big hits, how Nigel Dick adresses the audience is by showing the band exacly how they want it too look and see their favourite artists performing. This is why most of his videos ghave been big hits and they always (or near enough always) go to the charts.
Nigel Dick is a British film maker born on 21st March 1953, he is a film and music video director and he’s directed more than 300 videos, 25 documentaries and feature films and him and his work have won Awards.
Nigel has a degree in architecture, and he also studied and graduated at Judith Weston’s Acting for director’s class. Before all his success in the film business Nigel Dick had quite a few professions including taxi driver, architect, salesman and waiter.
Nigel Dick started working at stiff records where he worked for five years as a Press Officer. In the early 80’s he started working at Phonogram records where he directed the band aid video ‘’ do you know it’s Christmas’’; in the mid 80’s he moved to Los Angeles to direct his first feature film: ‘’ P.I. Private Investigations.’’ This was just the beginning, now he has directed many more film features and music videos.
In 2000 Nigel Dick was the director of the first made-for-MTV movie. 2GETHER which was watched by millions of people and it became TV series and its soundtrack went on the top 40 with three songs written by him.
In his career Nigel has worked with lots of artists including: Backstreet Boys, Good Charlotte, Ozzy Osbourne, Amy lee, Pussycat dolls and others. The videos he made helped selling millions of records.
After watching a few more video made by Nigel dick i started noticing the relation between them how they all look similar. He does simple videos that are good to look at. When watching them we see that the cinematography is pretty simple, is what you'd expect on music videos close ups of the artist singing shots of other stuff going on, mostly still shot here and there a camera movement but not much., then he uses the editing to make it look better, color correction, black and white stuff, lots of the shots fade into each other. The colors he uses the most are; blues, greens, reds; oranges. Depends a bit on the video and the style of song if it's a simpler video Nigel Dick will use more blues and greens if the song has more of a beat to it the oranges and red will dominate but, he'll always mix those colors mainly. He prefers to use a mix of narrative and performance to promote the artist and the music well, and the proof of this is that he has directed some of the most famous videos that exist. Nigel dick has his very own style of work that i'd define as making the artist as well as the song look and sound good. Nigel Dick's techniques are very simple and that makes all his videos have this familiar feel to them, they are all very different,they are simple but very full of energy.
If we look back to the videos I used earlier and the one recent ones, the bands/artists are always on camera there’s performance as well as the narrative but, everything within the video whether it’s props, costumes, lighting it all shows the band and it’s image. It promotes the band or artist by having close ups and showing them perform. Some videos are slightly different but I’d say he knows how to show what he needs to so the albums or singles can be sold. His methods of promoting bands and artists, Make the audience want to watch over and over again and buy the songs. A Music video is used to promote a song through images, and Nigel Dick does that not just to the song but to the band too. He's made really big hits that everyone watches like: baby one more time - Britney spears- the prove is that it sold thousands and it became a big hit.
From the examples i gave i looked at them and thought that the majority we really big hits, how Nigel Dick adresses the audience is by showing the band exacly how they want it too look and see their favourite artists performing. This is why most of his videos ghave been big hits and they always (or near enough always) go to the charts.
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