Research - Different music video ideas

http://www.fanpop.com/spots/music-videos/articles/247/title/what-makes-great-music-video suggests that:

1. It must be unique
2. It must tell a story. It can be a bizarre story that doesn't make much sense until the end, but one must feel satisfied at the conclusion
3. The artist or director must not feel confined to matching the visuals of the video perfectly with the lyrics
4. Makes a lasting impression and/or is memorable
5. One must realize that a great music video does not mean a great song with a mediocre video, but a fabulous music video can have a mediocre song.

We have started to look at music videos that fit with the genre that we have chosen. The music videos that we have looked at are:

• Gabrielle Aplin - Please Don't Say You Love Me

Amy suggested Gabrielle Aplin as an artist that fits in with the genre that we want to use. This music video is a really good one that caught our eye as soon as we watched it. It follows a really enticing story line that is something that many people can relate to. This is one of the many reasons that we love this music video. Aswell as really loving the music video, we love the song as well. A couple of us have heard of Gabrielle Aplin before, but I personally had never heard of this song. As soon as I heard the song I knew I wanted to use it, but it is the first one that we have looked at and so we need to watch a few more before we make any decisions. We all agree that this song is going to be a strong contender.

• Kina Grannis - Valentine

We found this music video by looking at similar ones to Please Don't Say You Love Me. This music video was really good to watch. We all liked the idea that it's so simple and easy to understand. You don't have to think while watching it, it all just makes sense. There is only one location and so something like this would be very easy to film, however they used very outstanding effects to create such a meaningful video with the pictures and everything, which we wouldn't be able to realistically re-create. Although we wouldn't want to copy the video, we think that if there was only going to be one location then something interesting would have to happen within it and we don't know how we would do this successfully. This means that we still think that Please Don't Say You Love Me is a better video idea for us.

• Megan Tonjes - State of Me

 

 

Research - Genres of music

A music genre is a conventional category that identifies pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. We got this information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_genre.

Popular music genres:

• Country/Folk e.g. Noah and the Whale 
• Hip Hop e.g.
• R&B e.g. Jay-Z
• Alternative/Indie e.g. The Arctic Monkeys
• Rock e.g.
• Pop e.g. Britney Spears
• Punk
• Classical
• Acoustic e.g. Gabrielle Aplin
• Musical
• Art
• Modern
• Jazz
• Blues e.g. The Blues Brothers
• Electro e.g. 3oh!3
• Funk
• Dance
• House
• Dub step
• Rap e.g.
• Metal

Genres of music can also be combined to make a mixture of styles, e.g. Pop-Rock and Indie-Rock. The genre that we have chosen to look at is folk-acoustic. This is because all member of our group enjoy this style of muic and so we thought it would be a good one to choose.

Research - Codes and Conventions

The codes and conventions of a music video

Codes

• An example of a code would be the equipment used in the making of the music video. The equipment will be useful when making the product look professional. For instance using a steadicam or a track for the camera will steady the shot and make it look more expert.
• Symbolic codes such as what the person is feeling and how we see that. Body language and facial expression are key when making a music video because the person needs to tell the story through their face as their is usually no narrative in a music video (except the soundtrack). The main character doesn't have the chance to explain how they are feeling and so the look on their face and the way that they present themselves is important when getting the message through to the audience.

We are going to use both of these codes to ensure that our product looks professional and is easily recognisable as a music video.

Conventions

Conventions are the way things are done within the video. They describe the genre of the music; however they vary depending on the genre of the music.

• The artist is shown performing. This is not always the case, however the most common way of making a music video is to show some bits of the artist singing the song. We are definitely going to use this convention in our music video.
• The lyrics of the song influence what is happening is the video. This is important in order for the whole thing to make sense. Some music videos have no real reason behind what is going on, however we all agreed as a group that we wanted ours to make sense. So we are going to use this convention to make is easy for the audience to understand the storyline and empathise with our main character.
• The pace of the editing fits the pace of the music. We all feel that this is really important because it will make the music video flow and make it far easier to watch.
• The codes of dress reflect the mood of the song. We are going to somewhat use this convention, however it might not be necessary depending on our song choice. We will want the storyline within the music video to look as realistic as possible.

We got all of our information on codes and conventions from:

• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_codes_and_conventions_music_videos)

What we wish to create...

For our A2 Media Studies project we are interested in creating a music video. We want to do this as we think it will be fun and exciting to make and it's different from anything we've done before. We feel that this will challenge us a lot more than year 12 as there is a lot more thought, planning and research that needs to go into a music video as opposed to a short film sequence. A music video has certain characteristics and conventions that we will need to look at in detail to ensure that we get the best product possible at the end. We are all extremely excited to get started!