Research For Music Video -Vernalis Theory

Carol Vernallis Theory

Carol Vernallis studied editing and camerawork closely in music videos. During her study, she observed that edits throughout a music video appear much more frequently and continuously, in comparison to edits within a film. Carol concluded that the edits within a music video disconnect from one another, linking multiple edits together which makes the video more entertaining for the audience. Also, it allows the audience to observe a continuous movement of different actions happening at once. Special effects such as wipes and jump cuts are used during the transition from one edit to the next. By doing this the edits begin to have a rhythmic pattern that closely correlates the edits to the song, making the edits move in time with the music.

Using Carol Vernallis theory, I explored music videos that followed this same effect whilst editing. Below shows videos that followed Carols theory. 

MISSY ELLIOTT - GET UR FREAK ON

 Missy Elliott's ' Get Ur Freak On' Video uses a number of special effects that illustrate the different movements of the dancers  and the different actions occurring. A fast transition of edits is used to link the multiple number of edits together, making the video flow continuously. 0:04-0:05 illustrates a fast transition of 6 edits that show various artists that are included within Missy Elliott's video. As the beat drops , a special effect is used to show the transition of the different dance moves of the dancers. The effect also slows down the pace down of the video as the audience are able to witness the different dance moves illustrated by the dancers. 0:13 is the point in which we observe the first special effect taking place. 

RICK ROSS- ASTON MARTIN MUSIC

In Rick Ross ' Aston Martin Music' Video, a fade out is used to show the transition from one edit to the next. In the Video ' fade outs' are used when the location within the video has changed from one location to the next and also to illustrate different characters within the video. An example of a fade out transition is at 0:21 - 0:33 where the edits change from a young boy resembling young Rick Ross to the different edits showing the Aston Martin Car and Adult Rick Ross. 

JA RULE- MESMERIZE FEAT ASHANTI 

In Ja Rules 'Mesmerize' video, a Jump Cut is used to illustrate the transition between Ja Rule holding the basketball and the ball in the basketball net. From 1:57 - 2:07 , we witness the jump cut taking place. The effect of this jump cut allows the audience to not see the transition between Ja Rule holding the ball , throwing the ball  and the ball being thrown through the net. The effect of this speeds up the transition between the action , making the rest of the video follow the same pace and keeps it entertaining for the audience. 

LUCOZADE ADVERT 2011

In the 'Lucozade advert' , A fast forward, (special effect) is used to speed up the transition from one edit to the next. In a space of second , between 0:44-0:45 , we see a number of different edits taking place , which makes it uncountable , as the pace of the edits are so quick. The effect of this correlates the fast edits to the fast tempo of the soundtrack and the drums. This correlates the edits to the rhythm of the song and  makes it more eye grabbing and entertaining for the audience, wanting them to keep on watching. 

LAURA MULVEY

“In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly.” (1992)

Laura Mulvey’s theory is that in the world we live in today, men have the pleasure to look at women and fantasize what they should look like.

A music video that helps explain this theory is Dizzy Rascal’s ‘Holiday’, in this music video, all women are young and in bikinis, this has a double standard as all the men are dressed up. Also, we never hear a females voice, this shows that women are not important, only her looks do.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional story lines that are happen in dramas dont apply to music videos.
Pop videos are built around the feelings of the songs  rather than the story a pop video would usually use the singer as both the narrative and character and the singer will often look directly into the camera so that they can involve the audience.


There are three types of music videos


Illustration: This is where the video tells the story of the lyrics. Dance is often used to express the feelings/moods in the song. For example Kelly Rowland's Stole

Amplification: Occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning. 

Disjucture: This is where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric. For example So Solid Crew 21 Seconds 

Wordle

I dont know why this is so blurry. But this is a wordle of some of the artists that where in are top ten list and also the lyrics from their songs.

Research For Music Video- The Function of A Music Video

In our first lesson we collective discussed as a class What Makes A Good Music Video. We decided that to make a ' Good' music video , the video should include the following elements :

• Rhythm editing - Ensuring the different edits links with the rhythm of the song.
• Attractive Artist- Makes the video more eye-catching for the audience.
• Interesting Location- Makes the music video more appealing. Also tells a story to the audience watching.
• Good message- Gives out a positive statement to the audience watching 
• Choreography- Makes the music video more entertaining to the audience. Making the audience wanting to join in with the dance moves if they hear the song again. 
• Image/song music should all match- Ensuring the images link with the lyrics of the song.
• Strong Narrative- A good way of illustrating an important issue that the artist wants to address to the audience.
• Fast Edits - Which keeps the audience more entertained whilst watching the video and enables them to keep watching to follow the storyline of the artist/character within the video.
• Originality - Having a video that is out of the ordinary and varies from different artists. Making it more unique and making the music video itself have a unique style.
• Tempo - To keep the audience entertained through a variation of different tempos , instead of hearing the song on one main tempo. 
• Attractive Bodies -Which will attract the audience more to watch the music video
• Repeated Central Image- Relates the song lyrics back to the main image of the song 

This is The video

This is the video i did with my group in preparation.
I uploaded this post on monday but it went missing so i had to upload it again.
Stand By Me by Ben E King

ANDREW GOODWIN

Illustration - video tell the story of the lyrics
Amplification - video that introduces new meanings and do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of the meaning.
Disjuncture - video that has little connection between the lyrics and video/ the video contradicts the lyrics.

Reflecting Back At AS Year- ' LE FREAK MUSIC VIDEO'

Below shows my previous group Lip-syncing video to our chosen song ' Le Freak'  which was created back in the summer lessons. This was our second attempt during our lip syncing tutorial of matching the lyrics to the lyrics within the song. It was a challenging but rewarding task , as we were able to accomplish a decent video that ties in well with the song lyrics. 

Song and Artist Choices

On mondays lesson me and Amy looked at some songs by british artist we came up with some possibilities and some no nos.
We had a wide range of artists from Lily Allen to Bjork. But we narrowed it down to the top ten.
Here it is:


Ed Sheeran - You need me
Amy Whinehouse - F me pumps
Taio Cruz - Break your heart
Jessie J - Domino OR Rainbow
Sugarbabes - About you now
Ndubz - Feva Las Vegas OR Say its over OR Girls
Pixie Lott - What do you take me for
Mark Ronson Ft Daniel Merri... - Stop me
Saturdays - All fired up
Darwin Deez- Up in the clouds


This is the top ten that we could think of at the moment but it may change as we progress on.

ANALYSING PREVIOUS STUDENT VIDEOS

 To help us with our own music video, we, as a class had a look at last years students work. We discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each music video, we then predicted how many marks they got out of 60, this helped us get an idea of what the audience would what to see in a music video as we were the audience to their music videos.

1. Beggin' you (54/60)


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The genre of this music video is r&b/pop, which is for the young audience of male and female – those that can relate to the song. It is pretty much like the typical/classic r&b genre ‘love story’ where a boy and girl break up and he is ‘beggin’ for her back, hence the name of the song. We follow their story, as it is intercut with lots of performance on a black screen. Men are represented in this music video and the women give in to them as they are dancing around them, making them some what vulnerable. 

2. The world is yours (60/60)

This music video is of the hip-hop genre and is intended for the young male audience, possibly black, as they tend to listen to this genre of music. The use of location was well selected as it goes well with the genre and song and also, the use of fish eye lens used throughout was very effective and giving their music video more originality, making it unique.

3. Hero (57/60)


The genre of this music video is also pop/r&b, for the young female audience which can relate, as females are represented in this video. The editing in this video is of top level, making it look extremely professional. Although there are a few locations, it does seem a bit repetitive when it cuts back to the purple background, but in some ways this is what makes their music video different from others.

4. When I see you smile (42/60)


This music video is of the pop genre and is mostly likely for the slightly older female audience – the 20s. The performance of the video is not that great, making it quite boring at times and doesn’t keep the audience entertained.

Reflecting Back On the AS Year- Digipak

Below shows my previous groups Digipak that we created in the summer lesson. The Digipak illustrates our chosen song ' LE FREAK'. we used the programme 'Photoshop Elements 4.0', through this programme it enabled us to add effects and create a CD cover. We decided to use bright colours to go with the fun theme ' le freak’, we though that the bright colours will contrast well with the theme of the tune. We also included the barcode for our CD and included the production company logo.

Reflecting Back On The AS Year- Evaluation on Lip Sync Tutorial and Digipak

During the process off created our own music video for our chosen song, we were taught the step-by-step method of overlaying the lip-synch lyrics to a song on top of the chosen songs soundtrack. To do this we used the programme Final Cut Pro to watch the video clips of the artist lip-synching the lyrics to the song and matching the lyrics to the soundtrack. We had a variety of different video clips of the artists shot at different angles singing the lyrics to the song.

We first had to insert the submix of the soundtrack onto the timeline. Clicking on the audio option, we were then able to see the sound waves of the song which would make it easier for us to mark the beats of the song and where the chorus off the song was, so it would be easier for us to overlay the video clips of the artists singing the chorus. We had to use 'M' to mark onto the submix where the chorus was and every beat within the song. On the submix, red dots would appear which would indicate where the chorus was and the different beats with the song.

Using this same method, we had to mark on the video clips where the chorus occurred and drag the video clip on the timeline on top of the submix. We had to ensure that both the submix marker and the video clip marker were underneath each other.  We then had to do the same process for 5 video clips and overlay them to the soundtrack. Eventually, using the slicer tool we would cut the through the video clips were each marker point was and eliminate the video clip we didn't want to be shown.

We then had the opportunity to do our own task and take a song and make a video to the soundtrack including us lip-synching the lyrics to the song. Our chosen song was ' LE FREAK'. We used the JVC cameras and camera equipment to shoot our film. We chose to shoot in college and use random people to sing the lines to the chorus. Both Milan and me took lead to sing the lyrics to the verses and Adam was our cameraman.  We then used the flip camera to take photos for our CD cover Me, Milan and John are included in our CD cover whilst Adam was our photographer.

We then uploaded our footage and photos onto out hardrive and imported it on to Final Cut Pro, we used the same method as we used for our Practise run off matching the video clips and lip-synching lyrics to the soundtrack. When we finished we had to covert our footage to MP4 by making it a QuickTime movie and import it through Handbrake.

To create our CD cover, we used the programme 'Photoshop Elements 4.0', through this programme it enabled us to add effects and create a CD cover. We decided to use bright colours to go with the fun theme ' le freak’, we though that the bright colours will contrast well with the theme of the tune. We also included the barcode for our CD and included the production company logo.

SONG CHOICES

Me and Mary looked at the possible song choices for our music video.

We came up with a list of songs and narrowed it down to the top ten:

Ed Sheeran - You need me
Amy Whinehouse - F me pumps
Taio Cruz - Break your heart
Jessie J - Domino OR Rainbow
Sugarbabes - About you now
Ndubz - Feva Las Vegas OR Say its over OR Girls
Pixie Lott - What do you take me for
Mark Ronson Ft Daniel Merri... - Stop me
The Saturdays - All fired up
Darwin Deez- Up in the clouds

-now, as a group, we will have to decide which song to choose and think of some ideas for our music video.

GENRE & STRUCTURE

GENRE
We looked at the different types of genre in the music industry - pop, rock, hip-hop r&b, etc.. and discussed how each genre usually follows the same concept, like, for example in the r&b genre, it is usually a love story about a girl and a boy falling in love or breaking up, showing the audience their story. This, in some ways is very cliche.


We was then put into small groups and was given a video still in which we had to analyse and identify the genre.

Jay-Z, Kanye West and Rihanna - Run this town

We analysed the video still and put in onto a grid:    

STRUCTURE
 We then looked at the different structure of music videos, in particular, we looked at one which had a narrative: Ce-Lo Green - f*ck you. In this music video it narrates the three stages in his life - as a child, a teen and now, how he lacks in success in women until the end of the music video, everything turns around. 80% of the music video is narrative while the other 20% is performance.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD MUSIC VIDEO?

 On our first lesson back we had a class discussion on what makes a good music video, we collected the information and decided that a music video should contain these aspects:

- Rhythm editing: 
ensuring that the different edits match up with the rhythm of the song.

- Attractive artist: 
making the music video more eye-catching, attracting the audience to watch the music video.

- Interesting location:
also making the music video more eye-catching and appealing, as the audience see a variety of locations, keeping them entertained.

- Good message:
giving a positive reaction, so therefore people will spread the word to others and so forth meaning that the music video will have a larger audience.

- Choreography:
making the music video more entertaining and making people want to get involved if they were to hear the song again.

- Image song music should match:
helping the audience to understand the song/lyrics more, although there are some that don't necessarily match this helps to emphase the song. 

- Strong narrative:
giving the music video more structure and meaning also involving the audience in some way as they can put themselves in the artists shoes and feel what they're feeling and follow the storyline.

- Fast edits:
ensuring that the audience are kept entertained, getting the audience in the mood which will  make them watch the music video over again. 

- Originality:
giving the music video a more unique sense/style, making it stand out from other music videos which all have the same theme.

- Tempo:
also getting the audience in the mood and making it more entertaining for them.

- Attractive bodies:
this also makes the music video more eye-catching, attracting more people to watch it, meaning a larger audience.

- Repeated central image:
giving the audience an idea of the music video and what it is trying to convey  to them.

Micky opened up final cut pro and showed us a template music video he then showed us how to mark the soundtrack at a certain point and then bring the clip over. He then marked the video clip at the same point as the marked video clip. He did this so that the video and the soundtrack would be in sync. Then he taught us how to go from one clip to another without making the video move out of sync with the soundtrack.

It took a while to actually do the task but eventually I got there and it was pretty easy.

Well we were asked to film a music video but we had to do it over and over again so that we were able to cut in and out of clips. There were some difficulties while filming because we needed to see the actors lips moving with the song so that when we were editing we could see where we had to cut it to make it in sync but sometimes the actors lips would turn away from the camera so we had to redo the filming again.

In the end the film turned out great and me and group were really pleased with it.

Marisa gave us a Photoshop tutorial. She taught us how to import images and crop them using the magic wand. She taught us how to add colour to the background. She also taught us how to add templates and effects already uploaded onto Photoshop for us to use. 

It was not easy using Photoshop it is so confusing there are so many things that need to be clicked before you get to a certain thing.

I chose an image of a stick figure drawn on a window in the rain. I chose this for my digipak because it reflected loneliness and the song that my group was given matched the theme of my digipak. We were given the song, Stand By Me by Ben E King.

For the back panel of my digipak I chose a simple image of rain on a window. I wanted to keep it simple yet still connect with the front panel.

I got my images from Google so it was even harder to do but I got the image and put it on my desktop then I went to open on Photoshop then desktop then I clicked on my image and that’s how I got it.

I’m not that happy with my digipak but I wasn’t expecting it to look like what the professionals can do.

What i would do differently is the filming of the music video because we had a few sloppy scenes. Like a reflection of someone dancing in the background and the camera slightly tilted. I think because we ran out of time we tried to rush it so it didn’t look as great as we had wanted it to look. 

This is the digipak that i made in the As year for Stand by me. I chose this picture of a man standing in the rain (well stick man) because he is lonely in the rain and looks a bit sad so it relates to the lyrics of the song. also rainy days can sometime make people feel lonely so that is why i picked it.

reflecting back on the AS year - STAND BY ME

This is our music video that we made using Final Cut Pro.

reflecting back on the AS year - OVERVIEW

To begin with, Mickey taught us how lip synching is used in final cut pro, picking out a clear word from a song and using the 'M' on the keyboard to mark out where the word comes in, then doing the same for the video clips. This insures that the song matches up with the video clip.  When putting the song with the clips, we had to make sure that the markers were all lined up, but this was quite difficult if you did not mark the specific word in the right place.  Other than that using the tools were easy to pick up, the razor tool that was useful for cutting up clips.

When filming for our own music video, there were some difficulties, one being that the speakers were not loud enough, it was hard for Shazray to lip synch, as he could not hear the song properly. Another difficulty we had was that we didn't film enough clips, so therefore we had to go and do more filming, but luckily this time we had a CD player and it was much easier for Shazray to hear the song and lip synch.

Using Photoshop, we made our digipaks, as I am quite familiar with Photoshop it wasn't that difficult for me, I added an effect to the image on the front cover to give it a more professional look, then added text in the appropriate places, on the front/back cover and down the spine. 

I was pleased with our final edit, I felt that the words matched well with the video clips and there were a variety of shots, making our music video successful and entertaining. I am also pleased with the digipak as all of the conventions are included making it look realistic and  professional.
I wouldn't really do anything different next time apart from insuring that there are more than enough clips to work from, as this will help when editing clips together.

reflecting back on the AS year - DIGIPAK

This is the digipak i made in preparation for the A2 year.

We answered a few questions which enabled us to get a clear understanding of the codes and conventions of a digipak, we then made sure to include these codes and conventions in our own digipak. 

1. What do you expect to see on the front cover?

-title of album, image of artist and name of artist.

2. What information is conventionally always included on the back cover?

-tracking list, bar code, production company and their website, other credits

3. How do images relate to the panels?

-same person/people is used on the front/back as well as the inside panel.

4. What do you see on the inside panels?

-credits for lyrics/digipak, image of artist, producers 

5. What information do you see on the spine?

-title if album, name of artist, production company, serial code

6. What type of fonts are used on digipaks?

-serif/sands serif, bold, readable, simple fonts.