Stop Motion

I really like the way 'Somebody that I used to know' was made so I decided to do some research on the video and how it was made. It is a music video directed by Natasha Pincus and it uses stop motion. Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own.

I really like how the artists and the background are painted in the video, using stop motion. I think it is very interesting how they mix normal recording with stop motion.

Digipak planning

This is the layout for my digipak. I designed it on Photoshop, and it is an idea of what I would like my final product to look like.

Initial Sketches

These are just some of the ideas I want to use for my music video, but I still don't know if I will use all of these, as it is just an initial plan, or maybe not use any at all. I will do some test footage and from there I will carry on developing my plan or completely change it. 

Flatplan

Digipak Flatplan

This is my flatplan. This is more or less what I would like my digipak to look like when I finish designing it on Photoshop. I have some photos already, but I would like to take some more so I can use the two main colours(blue and yellow), as the photos I have used up until now are just to test what the final product would look like.
I think my digipak will look quite simple, but colourful and good at the same time. I don't want to use too many photos, just one on the front cover. For the rest I just want illustrations and solid colour backgrounds, with sans serif font. I am using Sans Serif font because it looks more girly, and it is what is most used in other CD's / Digipaks of this genre. The colours aren't particularly girly, as blue  is usually associated with boys and pink is associated with girls, but the song is quite energetic and I researched the meaning of these colours and according to my research they are energetic colours, and this is what I want to transmit to my target audience.

Target audience for music video

The term ‘pop’ originally comes from the word popular, so it means it is one of the best known genres. The amount of time pop has been around for is debatable. It became famous in the 50’s, deriving from rock and roll. As a genre, pop music is very eclectic, often borrowing elements from other styles including urban, dance, rock, Latin and country.  Pop is also known for using short-to-medium length songs always focusing on the main artist using this as a commercial strategy, written in a basic format, usually using repeated choruses and a catchy rhythm and using dance orientated beats.  Pop music is generally thought of as a genre which is commercially recorded and desires to have a mass audience appeal.

The term ‘pop song’ was first used in 1926 and some people consider this to be the birth of pop music.

Pop was usually seen as an opposite term to rock music, as rock music aspired to authenticity, pop music was commercial and with no artistic intention and more focused on recording, producing and new technology over live performance.

Pop doesn’t come from any particular place or target any particular group of people. It is a genre that tries to target all audiences, although their best audience are normally girls from the age of 12 to 25. 

The song I'm going to use and the music video I'm going to make will probably appeal to all audiences, but be specially targeted at teenage girls, as they are the broadest audience group for pop music. The macro elements such as the audience and the genre are made up from the micro elements such as mise-on-scene and props used , so this is something I will focus on a lot, as well as on the semiology, to make sure the video is targeted at the right audience. 

 

 

 

Mind Map

This is my mind map. It represents all the ideas I have to create my digipak design. I hope to use a combination of all my ideas to make the final product, and maybe some more ideas that I have. At the moment I have made a flat plan and a digipak draft on Photoshop and I have used most of the ideas. I want to keep the house style for my digipak, my magazine advert and my music video, to keep it all visually related, so when people see it they can tell it belongs together. 

Moodboard

This is a mood board for my music video. I have made this so I can base all my planning on this idea, to have a better idea of what I'm doing. Based on this mood board I have planned my digipak flat plan and my digipak draft layout.
My ideas are to use bright colours in the video, have a bit of black and white in it too, and I would like to film in studio with the lights. I would like to have some dancing in the video, maybe just one person dancing or maybe a group of people doing a choreography.

Music Video Plan

I changed my track, so instead of using 'Not my problem' By Mackenzie Lightwood I will be using a song called 'All rights reserved' by Anny Sky.
The genre is very different; the first one is a slow love song with an acoustic guitar and the second is a more energetic song, with electronic sounds.
I already wrote my plan/synopsis for the first song, but as I have changed my mind, I did one for my new track.

Music Video Plan

General style of music video: Conceptual video, maybe related to Laura Mulvey's male gaze. Use of dancing and probably short clothing.

Description: I would like to use coloured lights. high camera angles and a lot of close-ups. I will probably use a lot of lip singing and dancing of one ore more people.

Resources needed: Colourful clothes and make up, studio lighting, maybe body paint.

Music Videos.

http://prezi.com/j1zyhn-atbtj/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

http://prezi.com/szxiwskdg2g5/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

http://prezi.com/0lkdghmgo34_/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

What is a Music Video?

Definition: A music video is a combination of visuals and music, usually of a short length (between 2 minutes and 6 minutes), used for promotional or artistic purposes.

Here are some music videos I like:

Major Lazer - Watch out for this(Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike Remix)

I really like this video because I think the music goes very well with the dancing. When the music beats the dancers dance to the rhythm, and this is probably because of the way they have edited it. I also like that it is really colourful, there are bright colours everywhere.


                                 

                                         Steve Aoki & Laidback Luke ft. Lil Jon - Turbulence

This Steve Aoki music video is a mixture of images of a real concert and studio produces videos especially for the video. It is quite surreal, and I think they are trying to show us the way they feel when they are on stage. What makes me think this is the way it is edited, because it shows us the people jumping up and down having a good time and then it shows us the artists and it almost looks like a hallucination. 

 This video is Avicii's Wake me up. In the video everyone stares at the two girls because they are different to them. They don't look very comfortable as no one seems to like them, so the elder sister goes to look for somewhere where they belong. It has some fast editing and some slow editing. Most of the editing is slow, but there is some fast editing when they are at the concert. There are a lot of close ups in the video; I think the close ups are to make us aware of little details, like the tattoo they have. I really like this video because I think the music goes rally well with the editing. When the music is slow the editing is slow and with not much action, and when the music is faster and happier, the editing is the same. 

                                       

Music Video Synopsis

Not My Problem - Mackenzie Lightwood

My video is going to be based on a couple that break up and try to get back together, looking for each other and arguing. It is going to be a sad story where the boy leaves the girl and the girl can't bare being without him, so she will do anything to get him back without caring about herself and her pride. The boy will find another girlfriend and his ex-girlfriend will be jealous and devastated, and more depressed as time goes by.
In the end she will notice it isn't worth it being depressed and she decides she wants to carry on with her life, but then it is him who comes back to her. Although she is week, she will stand up for herself and she won't fall for him again. In the end each one of them find another person and end any relation they had, not even saying hello to each other, as if they didn't know each other. That's why she sings 'It's not my problem', because she doesn't think he is her problem anymore. 

My evaluation

This is my music video for Total Eclipse of the Heart. We mainly focused on representing the lyrics visually and lip syncing. All 4 of us are in the video and we all helped each other. I think our video is well edited and well synchronized with the music, so it meets the expected conventions of a very low budget music video.
Making this video I learnt how to use Premiere and how to use the camera, experimenting and using different angles to get different effects.
We shot this video a lot of different days, and we put quite a lot of effort in to it. It was a bit of a last minute job as well because we lost most of our footage, so we were way behind everybody else.

My Labels

The labels I'm using are:
-Music Video Analyses
-Research and planning
-Transition  project
-Director Study
-Audience Feedback
-DVD Digi pack
-Magazine Advertisement
-Music Video

Jonas Åkerlund - Music Video Director

Jonas Åkerlund is a Swedish film and music video director. He is best known for directing music videos, which are often mock forms of movie trailers and short films. He directed Candlemass' first video, Bewitched.

He became famous when directing videos for Roxette. He also directed Smack my Bitch Up from the Prodigy. He has also worked with Madonna, Christina Aguilera, U2, Blink-182, Metallica, P!ink, Britney Spears, Ramstein and Lady Gaga.

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What I most like about Akerlund's work is when he makes a short film for a music video, like he does in Telephone and Paparazzi (Lady Gaga). I think he makes his videos look interesting and entertaining, and tries to put a bit of action in to his work.

In Ray of Light he uses a lot of fas editing.

Music Video Analyses

I like the lighting of this video, especially at the beginning when the light is coming from behind and we can see the silhouettes of people doing a choreography. The video itself is all quite dark, but when there is red in a scene it is always very intense. It is all very sexual in an obscure way, although at the beginning we can see the video is about a funeral, so this makes it even weirder. There are a few close-ups but mostly we see master shots where everything is in the screen so we can see things like the choreography. 

The main colors of this video are red, green and yellow. There is a lot of variety of camera angles, close-ups, medium close-ups, etc. The editing is quite quick, and i think it is based on a collage type of editing, because it is obviously all fake. It reminds me a bit of Pop Art, but I like the way it all looks so surreal. it uses quite a few things you would see in a comic like the use of onomatopoeia. 

This video is very original, as it uses dolls instead of people. The lighting is very dull, and its looks very unprofessional but it is still a good video, it is something unexpected. It is like a make-up of reality, using all types of toys and little objects to represent reality. I think they should have tried using some special effects instead of making it look so home made.