Britney Spears Progress

Here is the finished Britney Spears video.

The Smiths - This Charming Man Analysis

Genre
The genre of this song is indie, which can be seen in the video by the very low budget set. The Smiths are an indie band.

There is no narrative in this video - it is completely performance based. This could be expected from indie music of this time as it would be expensive to pay for actors for a narrative video.

In this video, Morrisey (the lead singer) is seen waving around a bouquet of flowers. This is a reference to their first performance of the song on Top Of The Pops. The people at TOTP wanted him to lip-sync the song so he said that there was no point going on stage with a mic and may as well use a bouquet of flowers.



As stated before, there is no narrative in this video.

The band is not portrayed as massively successful in this music video as they are simply performing in a room on their own. However, this is likely because of the low budget the video had.

The video is set in a very blank room, which reflects the band's name as they chose it because they thought "it's time ordinary people were successful" in the music industry - Smith is a very common surname. The font of the title saying, "This Charming Man" is also in a very plain font.

There are several close ups on the guitarist, Jonny Marr, as Marr and Morrisey are most commonly credited with the band's song-writing success.

Most of the shots are of a low angle, suggesting that whoever made the video needed to find a way to make the band seem successful and big.

The pace of the music video is quite slow, reflecting the simple band name.

As the music is independent, the institution had a relatively small role in the production of both the music and the music video - the band had more creative freedom.


Analysing this music video will help us as the lip syncing is very well done, so we will be able to take cues from it when we make our own music video. For example, we will have our actor actually sing the lyrics to ensure that the are breathing in the correct places.

Audiences

Artists will cater their music videos towards their target audience. They do this by using different characteristics that the specific audience has grown accustom to or will enjoy watching. 

For example, boy/girl bands will usually include some sort of dance routine in their music videos as it has been previously proven to be effective at attracting their target audience. 





Another good example of a music video effectively targeting its audience is The Writing's on the Wall by Plan B. It effectively targets the teenager/young adult bracket as a large portion of the video is set inside a night club and there  are strong themes of love and trust.



Different genres have different impacts on their respective audiences. For example, many people believe that young people who listen to gangster rap music and watch their music videos become much more violent people as they are idolising the behaviour in the music videos. Many people also disagree with this opinion, however, saying that songs and music videos have no effect on people.

Influential Music Video

The music video for Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen was very influential as it incorporated pioneering use of special effects. The two main effects used in this video were:

• the duplication of the band members at 3:17
• the blur effect used at 3:26

Effects of this sort had not been used in popular music videos before this. Many music videos have been influenced by this and have used different visual effects to achieve the look they want, for example Leave Me Alone or Scream by Michael Jackson.

Music Video History

One of the earliest music videos was St Louis Blues by Bessie Smith:


This was one of the first to feature the singer lip-syncing.

Len Lye, in the 1930s, experimented with kaleidoscopes and in the 1940s, Walt Disney released Fantasia. In the '50s, Walt Disney released an animation that was completely sung.





Scopitone Jukeboxes were introduced the 1960s and they had unofficial, colour music videos.

Also in the '60s, the Beetles released "Hard Day's Night", a film based around an album, and The Monkees had their own TV show.

The Kinks were among the first to make music videos with a linear narrative, in the 1960s.

In 1966, Bob Dylan released Homesick Blues, the music video for which included a man holding up cards with the lyrics written on them.

In the 1970s, Queen released the music video for Bohemian Rhapsody, which was pioneering in terms of special effects used in music videos, as they included many visual effects that had previously not been put to use in music videos.



Top of the Pops, in the 1970s, helped to promote artists, generating more interest around their music videos. If the song did not have a music video, which was quite common at the time, they had a group of dancers who would perform for the audience.

In the 1980s, MTV, a 24-hour TV channel, was launched, which showed music videos constantly. The first music video to be shown on MTV was Video Killed The Radio Star.



Also in the '80s, Michael Jackson used a successful film director, Martin Scorsese, to direct the music video for his song, Bad. Scorsese had previously directed Taxi Driver and was in production on Raging Bull.



In 1985, VH1, a channel that was aimed at an older demographic than MTV, which was largely aimed at teenagers, was launched. In 1986, Channel 4 began to show some chart music videos.

Dire Straits were among the first to use animation in their music video with Money For Nothing.



In 1986, Peter Gabriel released Sledgehammer, which was very popular.



In the '80s, many music videos were banned due to inappropriate content.

From 1994-present, music videos have begun to be made with very large budgets, for example Bad Blood by Taylor Swift.



Scream by Michael Jackson, released in 1995, had the most expensive music video to date, with a budget of $7,000,000, most of which was spent on the low gravity visual effects. This was recently overtaken by Bad Blood with a budget of $9,000,000.

Remake's Impact On Our Music Video

Remaking this video well greatly help us when timing our own. Although I am aware that music videos are often very fast paced, remaking this will be good practise, allowing us to edit our own video appropriately.

It will also give us practise with dealing with lip-syncing actors/actresses, meaning that we will be able to identify how to deal with the actors, to get a good performance.

Remake Problems

We are remaking all of the shots from 1:06 to 121. In this time frame there are 14 shots, for which we will find similar locations in which to shoot.

An issue we will face will be perfectly timing the shots. We will overcome this by shooting more than we need for each shot and then cutting it down when editing.

The other main issue we will face will be framing all of the shots in the same way as the original. If we fail to frame the shot completely accurately, we will have some leeway as we may be able to crop the shot to make it perfect.

Remake

We are remaking part of the music video for Hit Me Baby One More Time by Britney Spears. We are doing this so we can gain an idea of how many shots there are, as well as to gain an idea of the kind of pace used in music videos.

The Writing’s On The Wall Analysis

Genre

The genre of this song is pop and soul. The artist’s genre is pop, soul and rap.

There is a clear narrative in this music video. Strickland Banks feels that his relationship is almost over and, while at a gig, has an affair with a fan. Meanwhile his wife is cooking dinner for them both.

I would have expected such a clear narrative from this music video as the lyrics of the song have a very clear story.

I didn’t expect him to not come home as the song is about him worrying about his relationship.

There is one intertextual reference to Stevie Wonder’s Superstitious as the name of the song is The Writing’s on the Wall, which is the second line in Wonder’s song.

Narrative

The story of this music video revolves around a celebrity who feels that his relationship with his partner is soon going to end and he ends up having an affair with a fan.

There are two main themes in this music video:

·         Love

·         Trust

This music video shows the first three stages of Todorov’s five stages:

1.    Equilibrium

2.    Disruption

3.    Recognition of disruption

This music video demonstrate three of Propp’s main character types:

·         False hero – Strickland Banks

·         Princes – Strickland Banks’ wife/partner

·         Villain – The woman he has an affair with

The music video directly reflects what is heard in the lyrics of the song.

Representation

Representation of gender is stereotypical in this music video as the male in the relationship is seen working and making the money while the female is seen both applying make-up and making dinner for the man.

Plan B (playing Strickland Banks in the music video) is represented as a very popular artist, as the establishing shot at the beginning of the music video shows a board saying that the show was sold out. It could also be seen that he is held back by his partner.

Visual Codes

The video seems to be set in the ‘70s or ‘80s as the style of the house would suggest this time. Also, Strickland Banks is shown using a payphone, which, if it was set in modern-day, would be incredibly unlikely, as firstly, there are very few working payphones still around today, and secondly, he is clearly very wealthy and so would easily be able to afford a mobile phone.

During the scenes in the house, the mise-en-scene is very bright and colourful, connoting the woman’s innocence. However, during the performance scenes, the predominant colour is blue, connoting Strickland Banks’ sadness as his relationship comes to an end.

The only writing used in this music video is at the beginning, saying, “Strickland Banks Sold Out”, denoting his popularity.

There are lots of low angles on Strickland Banks in this music video, helping both to compensate for his below average height and also to connote his popularity.

There are lots of extreme close ups on his partner and also the meal she is cooking. This helps to show her emotions, which is stereotypical of females in the media.

When his partner is on the phone, there is an extreme high angle, connoting that her partner is mistreating her.

Technical Codes

There are lots of close ups on the pans as the food bubbles and rises, possibly connoting her love rising. Later there is a long shot of the woman burning her hand on the pan, connoting that she has been burned by her relationship with Strickland Banks.

There are some POV shots, from the point of view of Strickland Banks, when he looks at the woman in the bar.

The editing of the video is fast paced, which is typical of many music videos.


Audience
The target audience for this music video is teenagers and people in their early 20s. This is evident as a large part of the video is set in a night club.

Institution
The 679 Warner Music Group has ensured that Strickland Banks is portrayed as a celebrity, as shown by the show being sold out.

Music Video Presentation

Music Video Mindmap

 

Here is a mind map of the main goals of a music video. We will make sure to incorporate these features when we make our music video.

Nathan Hesketh 9178