Research: Analysing Mise-en-scene in music videos

Mise en scene is probably the most important aspect of a music video, it shows the viewers a bit about the artist. Costume can shape the artists personality, props and location can portray the songs genre and illustrate what the song may be about, and lastly the lighting can show the mood and atmosphere of the song and what its trying to show.

Apart from being the biggest boy band in the world One Direction's 'Best Song Ever', jam packed with a variety of mise en scene, gives their audience a lot to watch and like. This song uses a narrative at the beginning where each member of the boy band dress up as a character, this makes the video funny and interesting already. Then on the song begins and introduces each member as themselves singing, there costumes which consist of casual clothes shape them as artists, showing their fans and audience that they are down to earth young boys. The video location is set in a movie production office where they discuss about their new movie 'This is Us', the setting is quite plan, not very colourful, with many extras which they dance with, this makes the video fun and exciting for their fans.

Overall, mise-en-scene's purpose is the show the audience a little bit about the artist themselves and also to illustrate the song.

Appeal of Music Videos

The two music videos are prime examples of what generally the male targeted audience would be attracted to. This includes the females wearing little clothing, simply a provocative dress code along with suggestive dances and gestures. This refers to Laura Mulvey's theory on the 'male gaze' and how it objectifies women within the music industry highly.

Both songs are also the type of sound you would hear in a club and the setting used in 'Bad Girl' is fitting. Additionally someone who goes to clubs whether it's regularly or not, would also find the setting of the club in the video appealing.

Planning for Music Video: Analysis of Original Video

This video uses a variety of editing techniques such as split screen, wipe transitions and is fast paced. The beginning of the music video which develops into 16 split screens is something we want to try and experiment with and hopefully use in our music video. However our idea to also use the same 16 split screens at the end of the music video, and make sure that they disappear one my one into a blank/black frame. That's how we want to conclude the video.

Mumford and Sons - Hopeless Wanderer

There are many split screen jump cut shots through out the video. Several ideas that we have come up with:

• instead of using split screen shots of a variety of people, we will use 5+ locations of the artist



Mumford and Sons - Hopeless Wanderer

• instead of dancing frames use a variety of slow motion shots of the artist in a field and/or open space (the influence for that had been Mumford and Sons - Hopeless Wanderer )
• 
  

Another idea that we have considered is the opening for the music video, which was also influenced by Mumford and Sons - Hopeless Wanderer to 'Present' the song. However the genre of Kickstarts is electro/hip hop/dubstep and this style opening will not be appropriate for the target audience.

[PLANNING] Mood Board

Example has a target audience of young adults who are labelled as having a psychographic profile in between "mainstreamers" and "reformers". We have created a mood board to show us how his genre, fashion and similar artists has been moulded by his target audience.

Genre: The majority of Example's songs are a mixture of genres between dub-step and hip-hop with a hint of indie rock often evident in a few of his songs. The target audience often associated with both of these genres are young male adults. The song we have chosen: The Evolution of Man, strays away from his dup-step persona and fuses hip-hop and indie rock, opening himself to larger audience albeit quite similar to his previous audience.

Fashion: Example's wardrobe consists of a colourful and casual ensemble that is often associated with his target audience (young adults). The bright colours often present in his clothing, CD's and other marketing products builds synergy of his brand.

Similar Artists: Researching into similar artists (Tinie Tempah and Calvin Harris) showed us that they too have a similar audience to Example's which in turn generates a similar genre, fashion style and the overall way in which they are branded.

In conclusion we believe that musicians are shaped by their target audience and this often creates conventions found within particular genres.

Planning for Music Video - Analysis of original video

 

We chose Kickstart by Example, because I personally really liked the style and form of how the music video played out, for example the fast paced changes of the people, I thought this was really original. However I think for my groups twist on it, instead of using multiple people, it would be interesting to use multiple locations. Multiple editing techniques are used such as split screen, fast pace and transitions, we have decided as a group to include these techniques in our video however not exactly the same. The original video uses way over ten split screens which we also want to experiment by doing, the split screens move in a very fast pace which coordinates with the music. Instead of using the type of split screen shown at 0.51seconds in the video, we want to take inspiration from Mumford and Sons video Hopeless Wanderer where they are shown in a field. We also think it would be good to use slow motion instead of have a fast pace throughout the whole video. 

 

Mumford & Sons Hopeless Wanderer

[PLANNING] Official Copyright Clearance

1 Yeatman Road

London

N6 4DS

30/09/2013

Sony Music Entertainment

9 Derry St
London

W8 5HY

Dear Sir/Madam

Request for Copyright Permission to use Kickstarts by Example

I am a student of A Level Media Studies and for my Advanced Portfolio I will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. I would like to request permission to use the track of the above artist for this project.

The finished project will not be made available publicly and will be used solely for coursework purposes. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledged in the finished project.

If you do not hold the rights for this song I should be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or return it to me with the contact details in order that I might approach the copyright holder directly.

Yours faithfully,

Ali Jarjis,

ajarjis@hotmail.co.uk

[PLANNING] Final Music Video Choice

Update: We have recently changed the song we will be using for our project to another Example song: The Evolution of Music. What we learnt from this music video won't be a complete waste as it has helped us learn more about Example's brand that we will be able to apply to the other music video.

The main reasons we've chosen this particular music video is because we enjoyed the variety of editing techniques used such as the split screens, wipe transitions, the pace of the jump cuts along with the build up of the song. 

split screen shots that we want to replace

Our first and vague ideas are to use the split screens, wipe transitions, fast paced editing along with slow motion. Certain shots such as the split screens of people's faces and replace them with our own ideas to make it different.

Overall we believe we can compliment the original video and introduce our own ideas and make it interesting.

another shot we want to replace

[PLANNING] Short-list of songs

• Mumford and Sons
• Scouting for Girls
• Biffy Clyro
• Calvin Harris
• Example
• Foster the People

Website of Original Artist/s

Calvin Harris who was our first choice original website. The image of the singer is promoted here successfully as it fits the 'brick' background, representing it's laid back, street/casual style.

No original website for our final song choice artist does not actually exist, as all the information and tour dates are more largely accessible on Facebook.com

[RESEARCH] Mise-En-Scene in a Music Video: Hurt ~ Johnny Cash

Mise-En-Scene is a very powerful tool that can be used in a music video. The props, costumes and locations build an atmosphere that can become stuck within a viewers head. An example of such a memorable song due to it's music video is Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt. Below is a Prezi highlighting the importance of mise-en-scene in Hurt:

[RESEARCH] Previous Student Work Review

I believe this is a strong music video and is a perfect example of illustration (Andrew Goodwin's Theory). The variety of distances, angles and movements in the video keep the viewers entertained. They are very well framed and resemble a professional music video. An appropriate use of mise-en-scene is also apparent in the video; the song is about feeling trapped so the shots of the bird in the cage complement the video. Also appropriate is the editing which goes in time with the music as it speeds up towards the climax of the song.

P.S: The password is student.

[RESEARCH] Laura Mulvey's Theory on Representation

In Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975) Laura Mulvey focused on how women are represented from a male (even if the director isn't male) prospective which is often projected as sexual object, simply because "sex sells".

This is especially true in music videos where the main purpose is to promote the musician and simple way of doing so is by their physical appearance. Even musicians who aren't really physically attractive are "spruced up" and often given attractive back-up dancers/actors/singers. An example of such is Lil Wayne's Love Me, the video often jump cuts to an attractive women who doesn't drive the narrative/structure of the song but is only portrayed as a sex object:

[RESEARCH] Carol Vernallis: Experiencing Music Video

Carol Vernallis Experiencing Music Video:
Aesthetics and Cultural Context (2004)

After having carefully studied editing and camerawork closely in music videos, Carol Vernallis observed that edits in music videos came much more frequently than in film. She also noted that many stand out as disjuncture and that the editing seems to have a rhythmic basis closely connected to the song.

The main points of her observations are summarized below:

• The usual rules of "continuity" editing does not apply to music videos. This is done because montage editing can draw the attention of a viewer much more than continuity editing.
• Many music videos use obvious edits (jump cuts) and special effects so as draw the attention of the viewer.
• A master shot (base track) is frequently used to give the video structure.
• The camera often moves in time with the music.

In conclusion all the techniques that music videos use are primarily for one reason: to entertain the viewer. The more entertained the more likely they are to enjoy the song and buy an album (which is what music videos are all about). An example of a music video that uses all of Carol's techniques is below:

Research: Reflection on Progress

I think the use of ICT used in my blogging hasn't been varied enough, I tend to just write on blogger with a couple of YouTube videos linked. I think I could improve this by using software such as Prezi or PowerPoint to present my idea's. However in terms of the level of detail in my work, I think I have done this quite well with a few posts, such as 'Function of Music Video' and 'Andrew Goodwin's theory'.

 

Things I need to improve on is to use a variety of software to present my work and to also blog more frequently.

Independent Research

Graffitti on The Train by Stereophonics the main feature that is seen
in both the album cover and music video is the font.

Another website announcement on the release of the album, the date and the full track list

CLASH Magazine found online with the Album Cover

The costumes that are used in the album cover and music video are of the
same colour/style. The music video also features the font that the audience sees on the cover, and it appears through out certain moments
in the video such as this one on the right.

The colours of some frames in the video are matching the album cover, as it is of a similar tint/shade so a link can be seen between the two products.

Research for Music Videos: Branding

Most artists have a tendency to keep their products connected to each other so they can be recognised by their fan-base and possibly new attracted audience. This involves a Cross Promotional Package and would usually have something in common between all packages, such as magazines, teaser trailers, actualy music video and most importantly their actual release album.

Daft Punk is one strong example of this their album cover, one version of the music video has several things in common which helps their audience recognise them, and also have something to expect from the music video of the single.

In this case the colours and props are standing out the most through out the video that we see on the Album Cover.

one of many album covers for the band

The Saturdays featured prop would be the roller blades and the bright colours used on the front of the album cover, are also included in the middle of the music video. 

in the gif above there are clear references to the album cover in terms of colours, and also the fact that the roller blades are also used in the video and are even align and in order with the cover.

[RESEARCH] Costumes, setting and prop

Variety of costumes used and they contrast with the different locations. Body language is identical in all shots through out the music video for both band members. Costume is both casual and formal as the target audience is mainly 18+ and white male. The prop highlighted most are the two guitars the artists are using, as it is a convention of the Indie Rock genre. 

Research: Mulvey's theory

Laura Mulvey a British, feminist film theorist created the theory of the 'Male Gaze'. "Mulvey argues that in classic Hollywood films in particular women are merely represented to provide visual pleasure to men, the audience is constructed in a manner where they are all expected to be men".

From Mulvey’s theory of the 'Male Gaze' I think personally that I understand that women are put in certain types of media, particularly music video's to satisfy the men and make a viewing audience of men. A lot of music video's involve scantily clad women dancing around, and they are meant to have some kind of meaning to the song, but they are literally just there as an object to make either the men look good in the song or for the male viewers to watch.

Mulvey explains about two types of the 'Male Gaze', being voyeuristic and fetishistic. "Voyeuristic; seeing women as an image to be looked at. Fetishistic, seeing women as a substitute for the lack, the underlying psychoanalytic fear of castration".

For Mulvey's theory of the 'Male Gaze' I have chosen to analysis Robin Thicke's song 'Blurred Lines'. I personally hate this song, because of how it demeans women, it does in fact make the women look like objects for men. They are half dressed with a lot of skin exposed which adds to the women being 'things'. I therefore think Mulveys theory definitely applies to this song.

Research: Review of previous student work

 

This was my favourite music video made by previous students work. There were several reasons why I choose this, and this was because of many different factors including:

• Several different base tracks
• Location suit the song choice
• Brilliant lip syncing
• Special effects

These students decided to use many different base tracks which I thought suited the song choice, because this song has fast and slow parts, so when the song decided to fasten up the base tracks also changed in a fast motion. They also used editing techniques such as special effects, these included over layering of scenes, and slow motion. The lip syncing stood out to me the most, because it was exactly in time with the music, which made it look very natural. And lastly the location of the song was varied, and I thought also suit the song very much.

 

Research: Andrew Goodwin theory

Andrew Goodwin who is a theorist , talks alot about the structure of Music video rethinking narrative analysis. He explains that he feels traditional narrative analysis dont exactly apply to pop videos, and he explains this with a reason that music videos "approach narrative from a different angle to novels and films".

Narrative structures are different between pop videos and novels and films because:

Pop videos are built around songs and they do not have a traditional narrative structure such as normality-problem-resolution.

Pop videos use the singer as both narrator and as character.

Goodwin then goes on to explain that pop videos rely on repition, in the way that images are repeated throughout the video just like lines and choruses are in the actual song lyrics. Goodwin talks a little bit about the types of relations between songs and videos, referencing them as:

Illustration: where the video tells the story of the lyric. For example i choose the song 'if i were a boy' by Beyonce. I choose this song because the lyrics being sung are being portrayed and told through the actions(narrative) in the video. The meaning of the lyrics are about two people in a relationship, and she feels betrayed by the man she is with because of his actions toward another girl, and the video tells this to the viewer.

Amplification: when the video introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning. For example for this I choose the song 'Same Love' by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. I choose this because the video is telling a story but it also adds more meanings for the viewers to think about and talk about. It's also quite a controversial video and song therefore alot of people would be pulling the meanings out.

Disjuncture: there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric. For example Telephone by Lady Gaga, because she mentions lyrics that are actually the total opposite of where she is and what she is doing.

Also videos that are from songs written for particular movies often have images from that movie in the video.

Example

Pearl Harbour - there you'll be

Twilight - thousand years

Armageddon - I don't wanna miss a think

Coyote Ugly - can't fight the moonlight

Body Guard - I will always love you

Titanic - My heart will go on

Research - What is the function of a music video?

A music video is a videotaped performance of a popular, recorded song, usually accompanied by dancing and visual images, interpreting the lyrics. Therefore the main function/purpose of the music video is to promote the single, as well as the album in which the single has come from and also to promote the artists image. For a music video to promote it has to:

sell the song in a way that the audience can remember

to provide a better understanding of the song, both visually and audibly, by 'telling a story'

And lastly, to entertain the viewer by highlighting the talents of the artist. For example there dancing, performance skills and physical appearance.

Katy Perry's new single 'Roar', I feel is a good example of the music video form, because mainly it tells a type of story through the narrative and what’s going on in the video. At the beginning of the video she plays the typical, stereotype of women in the jungle, and then she chooses to play a character that looks as if she belongs with nature. I think she is creating an image of herself to be a strong and a will powered woman. The lyrics of the song also portray that she feels this way about herself when she sings 'hear me roar louder than a lion' and 'I am a champion'.

The setting, costume and props add to the reason why I feel she is creating the strong woman image, because it's set in a jungle where this would usually be stereotyped as not a place woman would like to be, in case they chip a nail, so I think she’s letting go of that stereotype. You also see her confronting a lion, which connotes that she’s also a brave woman. Her body language throughout most of the video is upright and straight and I think overall she’s changing the image of how women are portrayed.

This video has had over seventy million views on YouTube, and has also gone viral because of many parody's that have been posted and shared, I also shared this music video myself on Facebook.

 

RESEARCH : Review of student music videos

Review of student music video

Strengths:

• Variety of shots 
• Slow motion editing
• Used camera zoom
• Used panning
• Slow fade in/out
• Variety of locations (bedroom, house, dining rom, forest)
• Good use of props ( dress,make up, table setting, cupcakes, smoke bubbling tea pot, coloured cigarettes, candles, costumes)
• Obvious theme of 'Alice in wonderland)
• Good structure/ use of storytelling

Weaknesses 

• Overuse of slow motion, majority of the video was in slow-motion
• couple of shaky shots when the main girl is walking

Relation to theory

This video is an example of Andrew Goodwin's 'dancing in the distraction factory' theory as it uses the song/video relation : Disjuncture

this is where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric. In this case, the video contradicts the lyrics, as the song is by Florence and the machine and is about heartbreak, this group, however, took the magical tone of the song and used the theme of 'Alice in wonderland' for their video, with most of the video showing a remake of the mad hatters tea party.

RESEARCH: Laura Mulvey summary

Laura Mulvey : Theory on representation ' visual pleasure and narrative cinema'

Laura Mulvey and her theory of 'The Male Gaze' was influenced by Freud, Mulvey argued that in classic hollywood films in particular women are merely represented to provide visual pleasure to men, and the audience is constructed in a manner where they are all expected to be men. 

I understand she has classed 'the male gaze' as both voyeuristic and fetishistic. 

This explains her theory of "to-be-looked-at-ness", where women were solely shown on screen in classic hollywood in order to provide men with visual pleasure. 

Mulvey argued that the typical key protaganist within a classic hollywood film was male and the audience members where similarly typically expected to be men. She states : The typical male audience member is alligned with the films protagonist, by identification, admiration or aspiration. Therefore the audience member gains narcissistic pleasure from identifying with the films protaganist,placing themselves "in the shoes" of the films hero. So for example if a woman was not portrayed in the way she was in classic hollywood or placed in a position of lower authority a male would not feel as powerful. 

So, Mulvey's main argument in "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" is that Hollywood narrative films use women in order to provide a pleasurable visual experience for men. The narrative film structures its gaze as masculine. The woman is always the object of the reifying gaze, not the bearer of it. A video to show my understanding of this best is 

Robin Thicke - Blurred lines

In the original version of this video, he has the women parading around naked (even in the 'pg' video they're still dressed skimpy) as he sings the hook "I know you want it" While the women are objectified as they dance on and around him and the three other men dressed in smart fashionable suits. This video shows mulveys idea of "to be looked at ness" 

RESEARCH: Carol Vernalis summary

                                                  Carol Vernalis : Experiencing Music Video


Carol Vernallis describes how verbal, musical, and visual codes combine in music video to create defining representations of race, class, gender, sexuality, and performance. Her theory explores the complex interactions of narrative, settings, props, costumes, lyrics etc.

Carol observed that edits in music video are much more frequent than in film, many stand out as disjunture and the editing seems to have a rhythmic basis closely connected to the song.

Her observations showed

• The usual rules of continuity editing (usually found in classic broadcast fiction) are broken in order to draw attention to what is on the screen
• Edits may be really obvious to draw attention to them selves, such as wipes and special effects added 
• Jump cuts are used quite often
• A base track is used a lot to give the video structure 
• The camera may move in time with the music 

Example Music Video
 showing the above features

RESEARCH: Andrew Goodwin Summary

Andrew Goodwin: Dancing in the distraction factory

Andrew Goodwin

‘Dancing in the distraction factory’

Traditional narrative analysis doesn’t really apply to pop videos. Because they approach narrative from a different angle to novels and films.

This is because:

Pop videos are built around songs and these often don’t pose traditional narrative structures (normality – problem – solution)

Pop videos use the singer as both a character and narrator

Often the artist’s looks directly at the camera- this is an extension of live performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with the performance.

Pop videos rely on repetition as it means that we become familiar with the genre and have certain expectations, this is done through video play on TV, radio play and/or an advertising film or TV tie-in which makes the song very familiar through repetition.

Pop videos have a form of closure and ending, the single the video is based around must end which is shown in the music through a build to a climax or constant repetition before fading away.

There are 3 types of relations between songs and videos

Illustration: This is where the video tells the story of the lyric. Dance is often used to show the feelings/moods: 
Madonna : Papa don't Preach Illustration example

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

Disjuncture this is where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric.

Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce, Telephone: Disjuncture Example