Unit 29: Music Video Production

Introduction

In this essay I will be exploring the styles, conventions and techniques of music video production. When looking at styles it means what genre of music video, for example if a music video is a parody of something that is already available. Conventions are important to study as they are one of the most important aspects, for example lyric interpretation would be an example of a convention, if a music video does not interpret the music or the lyrics then the video would be very boring. I will also be looking at some techniques that are frequently used in music video production, for example lip syncing. This is one of the most common techniques used in music video production as it shows the artist (sometimes an actor) singing even though they are miming along to the song.

Europe - The Final Countdown

              

This is a good example of an in-concert 'as live' music video. This means that it has a live setting almost like watching a live performed version. This was a very common style of music video, especially in the rock genre during the 1980's. This video show's a lot of the band playing 'live' but also shows a large crowd of people watching, this is to show that this is a live show and not just a music video filmed on a sound stage. 

This style was so popular during the time because it made the video very energetic, rather than having to think of a storyline and find locations etc, it was easier to film a live concert and just release that (with the original song overdubbed). However, towards the beginning of the 1990's, this style became very cliche and outdated, and it quickly became less and less popular with rock groups, this was where music videos with a meaning and a story line became a lot more popular.

Aha - Take On Me

The music video to 'Take on me' by Aha is very different to a lot of music videos released at this time (1985) as it uses a special animation technique known as 'rotoscoping', this is animating over an image from a live action film. This music video is an example of an interpretive style, this means that the music video takes an interpretation from the lyrics and tells a story with it. This is a bit different from a narrative where it would directly link to the lyrics, an interpretive style gives the music video more creative freedoms such as story telling and characters.

This music video although is in an interpretive style, telling a story of the two main characters in love, the shot often cuts back to the band playing. For example when the main synthesizer line is played, the camera cuts back to the keyboard player. I believe they used this to break the video up, otherwise the story line would be very long winded and probably get boring to the viewer after little time.

                                           Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Can't Stop

'Can't stop' by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers is an example of a surrealist/absurdist style of music video. This means that it is unconventional and often bears no relation to the meaning of the music or lyrics.
This video contains many spontaneous and random shots, some artists use this style of music video because it keeps the viewers attention for longer as it is more bold. In this case, there's no real story line to the video, it is based around the band playing with a lot of shots in between of something non related.

                                          

Beastie Boys - Shadrach

            

'Shadrach' by Beastie Boys is an example of an impressionist music video. This means that the video is more rich in artistic value than actual story telling or relating to the lyrics. This video is almost a mix of impressionist and 'as live' because in many shots it shows the band playing in-front of an audience. Impressionism has been around since the early 19th century and differs from a lot of art movements as it defers from the original meaning of the artists intended mood or style and takes an individual approach that is often bolder, more colourful and generally more interesting.

This music video, just like 'Take on me' by Aha is rotoscoped, except this is slightly different as it is painted over rather than just sketched. This makes the video stand out and be more visually appealing to the viewer. Directors create impressionist work as it's different to mainstream styles, because there are so many music videos being released it's important to have one that stands out from the rest and a good way to do this is to use this style.

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Fat

           

'Fat' by "Weird Al" Yankovic is a parody of Michael Jackson's 'Bad', both song and video wise. A parody is an imitation a style or a creation from a particular artist but often with  comical effect. "Weird Al"'s entire career has been made by creating parodies of mainstream music and accompanied by music videos. I chose this video in particular because it is clear that it was intended to 'copy' or pay homage to the original Michael Jackson music video, for example the setting & choreography were carefully planned to follow exactly what the original did except with a comical twist.

An example of this is in the scene where the backup dancers and main talent are jumping over the parking barriers, it's clear to see that although it was an homage to the original version, the "Weird Al" verson added a comical twist with the backup dancers struggling to get over the barriers.

 "Weird Al" Yankovic - Lame Claim To Fame 

           

'Lame Claim To Fame' is another of "Weird Al" Yankovic's work, this time it is the video itself that is important. This falls under the category of animation as it is not a parody of anything, strictly speaking it is digital stop motion animation. This is when the camera takes a series of thousands of photographs and in between the photos the models or pictures are moved around and added, once put into an editing software it creates a 25-30 frame per-second animated sequence, although very time consuming the finished results look a lot more interesting than something that is animated in Adobe Flash.

This particular video features a series of brightly colored pictures that look to have been cut out in a messy fashion, this is because the video is shot inside a scrapbook so the messy cut outs make it more realistic. There are some aspects to this video that aren't in the scrapbook style however, for example at the beginning and the end we are given a mid shot of the room that the scrapbook is being looked at in, this is so that the story flows better and has an easy to follow beginning and end

Conventions

'Rag 'n' Bone Man' - Human

            

'Human' by Rag 'n' Bone man is a good example of lyric interpretation and lip sync, the music video itself represents the imperfect nature of humans and how mistakes and faults shouldn't shape someones life. It also shows that everyone is different, throughout the entire video it shows people morphing into someone else while keeping a smooth flow of lip syncing. Although the nature of the video is fairly simple, the message it puts across is very powerful.



                                                           Techniques

Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

            

This is an example of a chroma key music video, also known as 'green screen' it means that something is shot in front of a green wall or sheet and then the unwanted green colour is removed or 'chroma keyed' out, this means that you can edit anything in its place, this is good for saving money, rather than having to shoot the talent in a different country for example, it's easier to put them in front of a green screen and have some stock footage running behind them to achieve the same effect.

This music video was one of the first to extensively use this technique. It was shot in 1979 meaning that computer technology was only just developing, so the effects that were achieved by the chroma key were very basic by today's
standards. As seen in the image to the left, the effects in the backdrop were very basic and corny, but it did show a lot of promise for the mass production of chroma keyed music videos.

Barenaked Ladies - One Week

           

This is an example of a 'split screen' effect where there are multiple shots on screen in one sequence. Split screening is used to create a unique feel to the video, for example in this video the split screen is used to show both singers doing different things but at the same time in the same sequence.