How to analyse a student made music video

 Student made music video’s

 

Common mistakes made:

-       Focus too much on the narrative so it’s less of a video and more of a film

-       Bad lip syncing

-       Singer or band isn’t enthusiastic/ committed enough to the music

-       Singer or band don’t look the part/ suit the music

-       Not enough shot sizes/ types

-       Not enough location/ set ups

-       Not enough costume changes

-       Trying to make school locations look glamorous

 

ANALYSING A MUSIC VIDEO IN DETAIL 

When analysing a music video, it is probably best to break it down into some key shots / scenes in order. Take some screen shots, and then analyse each section using some of the bullet points below to help you. They don’t have to be talked about separately. 

-       What are the themes / narratives of this section of the video? – love story, breakup, broken hearted

-       What do the camera shots, angles, and movements signify? – loneliness, pain, suffering, love, partnership

-       What do the editing transitions and effects signify? – smooth slow transitions, sad and happy depending on the part of the song

-       What do the lyrics signify about the band? – quite an independent group, go for their own style but seems a bit pop music

-       What does the mise-en-scene (costumes, props, setting, colour, facial expressions, body language, hair, make up) signify? – white costume in the grass is innocence and purity and happiness. Black costume and hair with red lipstick is much more evil, broken and depressing

-       What are the artists / bands’ star persona? How is that constructed? – edgy and independent, creates music for themselves

-       Are there any intertextual references? To what? Why? - no

-       Is the video largely conventions or does it do anything unconventional in terms of genre / music videos? 

-       Who is the target audience and how are they specifically targeted / appealed to? - sounds like it’s quite a feminine targeted song. Its aimed at an audience who like love stories and might be sad or like sad pop music. 

Hurtwood House music video Analysis

Hurtwood Music Videos- 'Wicked Ones'

·       Starting shot, shallow focus closeups to start, sticking to conventions. Depth of field changes creates a disorientated tone. 

·       The background colour changes, first the colours and images are rebellious (bright graffiti). Movement of the lights, adds energy, aggression and unity to the piece as the visuals reflect the lace of the music. 

·       The casting is on point, matching the vocals and genre. Their clothing matches the genre of rebelliousness.  Red lipstick and black leather are two rebellious and key features of rock. Long curly hair also reflects the rock nature. 

·       Lighting throughout is low key to create dramatic shadows and highlights, ominous and intriguing atmosphere. 

·       Handheld Tracking shots of the stonework to her hives connection to her and the lighting giving her power. 

·       Leaning up against the wall whilst out of focus gives her an intimidating presence. Can't read her intent through her facial expression. 

·       As the tracking shots connect her to the environment, she gains a conf8dent persona.

·       Back lighting highlights her figure creating a larger figure and makes her standout from the backdrop.

·       Alleyway set connotes to city life and danger secrets, mischievous

·       Her stride is confident and powerful but taking the mick out of “holy man” makes her seem disrespectful.

·       During the verse and the motif of the “Ahhh ahhh ahhhs”, the camera shifts to handheld creating a theme throughout the videos.

·       Aggressive mosh pit strobe lighting creates an intimidating figure, shadows flashing across their face creates an image in your head of the flash of colour

·       Casting of the other girls are all similar to the key performer 

·       Each “ahhh” focuses on the singer, creating a ringing effect that links her to the power of the music, with the Ahh connoting to combat and frustration or aggression.

·       Even when they could use a stationary shot, they instead have handheld motion to it.

·       Pull focus shots are sharp and fast creating a difficult to follow shot

·       Pans and focus pulls are combined (girl alley shot) connotes to women’s power and sexuality / unity of the girls community

·       Smoke catching the light connotes to drugs and smoke, rioting, and mystery. Cigarettes, and catches the light adding to the set.

·       Gobo lighting filter in front of the light projecting the lines.

·       Constant quick cuts and shot types creates a cluttered yet cohesive theme to the piece. Chaotic to watch, seemingly filled with action. 

·       The instrumental part seems to be on more of a dance area and physicality

·       The girls leaning with her in the same set creates a gang like culture / community

·       Backing up into shadows 

·       Fade of action as the “Ahhh” receded creates suspense and tension before exaggerating the return of the music in full force

·       Closer to the end of the video, more and more shots show the lead singer with backup dancers, creating a closer bond between them adding lower in numbers and a gang quality to it. Unity and bonds between them.

conventions of a digital

 Conventions of a digipak

 

Front cover:

-       Image of singer/ band

-       Name of singer/ band

-       Parental advisory sticker

-       Info on any bonus material such as extra tracks, behind the scenes or music video

 

Inside cover:

-       Other image/ background

-       Possible credits for crew involved

-       Appreciation to someone specific

-       Message to fans

-       Lyrics to songs

-       Info about the artist

 

Spine cover:

-       Name of singer/ band

-       Name of the album

-       Record label logo

 

Inside back cover:

-       Other image/ background

-       Space for disc to be placed

 

Back cover:

-       Image of singer/band

-       Track listing

-       Barcode

-       Record label logo

-    Copy right info

Evaluation of my DigiPak design

Today we presented our DigiPaks in class. Other students commented on my DigiPak and here is their feedback:

- good design

- cool pictures

- good that the artists are on the front and back

- the editing of the images is very quirky and original

- I need to add more songs

- add a record label

- good colour scheme

DigiPak Design

Eminem Album cover analysis

Analysing Artists Album covers

 

 

 

Album Title: Encore- possibly meaning his songs on the album are fantastic and that the audience will want more. Returning to the music industry/ big entrance. Backwards E is shady, like his character. Backwards E looks like a number, could represent the 313 which is a gang he lived near

 

Colour palette: lots of dark blues and blacks. Male colours to show he is macho. Possibly aimed at a male audience

 

Body language: Bowing down to show he is pleasing the audience but doesn’t look sincere. Menacing bow so possibly not meaningful. Hand behind his back which is sly, reaching for a gun or knife?

 

Location/ setting: Stage, similar to 1920s-50s thugs like Al Capone. Connotes long term success. Polysemic- multiple interpretations. Small venue, unusual performance. Spotlights on him to pull focus to his character/ persona.

 

Costume: like a 1920s-50s thug. Suit signifies his power and personality, wealth and success. Very mature. 

 

Parental advisory sticker: not family friendly. Shows explicit language. 

 

 

-       Inside of the back of the CD cover shows the back view of him on the stage

-       Mixed messages of him being unpredictable and 2 faced

-       We see the audience are happy and clapping whilst Eminem was very serious on the front cover

-       Completely changes the professional look he had and shows him to be a dangerous thug

-       Colour palette is still very dark and masculine. The silver gun stands out to his dark suit.

We can now see the golden yellow spotlights pointing to him on the stage flour.

Analysis of artists first Album cover

 

Here we can see Sam Tompkins first album cover for his song 'On My Own' that released in 2017. The Album cover design is very basic with a silhouette of a house infant of a red background. The red background is a bright, blood red colour which makes it stand out. The contrast between the black and red works very well and connotes to sadness, anger and loneliness. This represents the genre and mood of the music and reflects the lyrics of the song (Sam sings about loneliness). The name of the album is the same as the song 'On My Own'. This is easy for the audience to remember and makes for good marketing because it is simple. The Album cover is a completely digital design and has no physical copy release. This is because this was Sam's first song and he didn't have a large budget to create an abstract and complex design or pay for manufacturing costs of the album itself. Due to the album being entirely digital, there is no legal information on the inside or back of the cover as well as a song list (mainly because it only has 1 song). 

Andrew Goodwins music theory

Andrew Goodwin

Music video conventions- A theory

 

 

 

Andrew Goodwin theorises that music videos have the following conventions:

-       A link between the lyrics and the visuals (lyrics match what’s being shown directly or indirectly)

-       Reflect the common features of genre of music (attacking music means fast editing)

-       Use of intertextual references (referring to another film, video or book)

-       Notions of looking and voyeurism (people being objectified and sexualised for an audience)

-       Demands of the record label evident e.g. budget (the video reflects the company, if it’s a high budget company the video has good visuals)

-       Star image a key focus (where the image of the artists is the most important aspect e.g. close ups or long lasting shots)

-       Performance based, narrative based and/or concept based (video that focuses on a performance by the band an artist/ video that focuses on a story/ video that doesn’t fall easily into the other categories and feels more abstract or random)

 

 

1. An example music video where the lyrics reflect the visuals is 'Wrecking Ball' by Miley Cyrus.

During the main chorus "I came in like a wrecking ball" Miley swings across the music set on top of a wrecking ball and smashes through a wall. with the lyrics exactly matching the image, this is an excellent example of one of Andrew Goodwin's theories that the lyrics connote the images taking place

2. A music video that reflects the common features of the genre is 'Castle on the Hill' by Ed Sheeran.

The pop music genre normally follows a narrative that is focussed on the song writer and singer. 'Castle on the Hill' follows the story of Ed Sheeran's favourite teenage memories and narrates through him smoking and drinking with his friends. This is classic for pop as it follows the path of a partying teenager who's making the most of their life.

3. KSI's music video 'Beerus' uses intertextual knowledge in one of his lyrics. 

During the first verse of the song KSI says "I'm a God like Beerus", referencing to a character in a very popular animated show called 'Dragon Ball Super'. KSI is also wearing Beerus's iconic golden neck and shoulder plate in the video. 

4. A music video that includes Andrew's theories of Notion of looking and voyeurism is Nicki Minaj's 'Anaconda'.

The music video 'Anaconda' consistently shows images on Nicki and her dancers bodies as well as referencing locations and objects as sexual innuendos. Nicki and her dancers wear revealing outfits and the video itself uses several different camera angles to capture the physiques of the women in the video.

5. In Jake Pauls music video 'Fresh outta London' we can see that the video cost lots of money to make.

In the background we can see several expensive cars manufactured by famous sport car companies like Lamborghini and Ferrari. we can also see there is a huge mansion in a remote area as well as diamond grills on Jakes teeth. In other parts of the music video Jake can be seen throng money into the air and wearing expensive branded jewellery such as his Rolex watch and gold chains.

6. Finally, the music video I found that consists of Andrew Goodwin's belief of performance in a music video is 'The Pretender' by the Foo Fighters.

This video revolves around the performance of the band 'Foo Fighters' and demonstrates their musical skills as singers, guitarists and drummers. The video shows them to be fending off a S.W.A.T. team or heavy equipped police officers with their aggressive music. This emphasises their ability to create quality rock music.