For Rihanna's video 'Cheers' tells a different story, one that's more personal to herself. Her lyrics in her chorus mainly go 'cheers, I'll drink to that' and I think that this music video is a representation of her success as an artist, as she documents this in her music video. What I've also learnt when researching all different genres of music and watching their video's are that you must always make sure that your lyrics relate to the theme of your music video otherwise it could end up a disaster. Moreover, I find that this is definitely one of her best music video's, as this is one of her most inspiring. By working hard and following her dreams she has become most successful and is definitely a positive role model, as I think she is one of the few artists who target all ages and genders.
What I like about these few seconds of her music video is that it starts out like a video documentary, with crowds of fans chanting her name. There is then a high angle shot shown of her shoes, stereotypically used to connote the glamour of her lifestyle. The fast paced shots allow us to identify the contrast of worlds that Rihanna has. We flicker to mid shots of her in her dressing room as the non-diegetic sound of crowds chant her name. I think that the framing of the shot where Rihanna is getting ready is to emphasise perhaps this persona that she masks on before she performs on stage in front of her audience. We are then introduced to a long shot of fireworks erupting in the sky. I think that these fireworks are a metaphorical symbol of Rihanna's fast paced, hectic lifestyle. As soon as this shot emerges many mid/long shots are used to represent her glamourous lifestyle, and just before the the song begins Rihanna is seen strutting onto the stage acting very sexy and wearing skimpy clothes to announce her arrival.
I really like the concept of this video, as I think you could interpret it in many different ways. Also, to me personally this doesn't look like a very high budget video, which most definitely gives me confidence when I go on to shoot my own as this shows that you can create a good quality video without a high budget. I think that Examples target audience is for older teenagers and young adults, as I think that the meaning behind this video is unity within society through partying and enjoying yourself, something that many teenagers and young adults get up to.
When there are shots that only include himself, I still think that they're just as significant as the shots that explain and represent what his song is all about. The shots that are filmed with just him and shot in black and white. I think that by only using colour within the shots of the teenagers, he metaphorically saying that you come alive when we're all together and letting our hair down. I think that the different colours used represent the different personalities that come out of us, and that partying makes you feel and young and free again.
He is the main subject within the frame as the background is completely neutral, and a high key lighting is used so an audience can focus on him.The first shot of him he has his back to what you could call his 'logo.' By presenting the logo to be the same size as himself, I think that he is implying that his music has become bigger than he is and that he is finally taking off for success, hence the reason as to why this song is all about letting yourself go and celebrating. When using close ups of him lip syncing (shot 6) he himself is anything but serious, and seems to be relaxed and enjoying himself. Like One Direction in their video, nothing seems staged about his performance which I think always makes a video more successful. Shot 12 is extremely similar to this, however a mid shot is used to emphasis the relaxed body language used to demonstrate his carefree attitude and mind. Shot 8 is probably my favourite of Example, as he uses the concept of a 'God-like' status by showing him rising above the ground as if looking up to someone. I like to interpret this shot as music metaphorically being a God to him, that music was his saviour and is what he admires most.
I love how Example has taken three completely different groups of teenagers who are probably from entirely different worlds and see things from different perspectives. The 2nd shot is a mid shot of a girl and a boy, both staring vaguely into the camera. Their facial expressions and body language give us as an audience the impression that they're moody and unsociable people. However, as the music video progresses we see them them and friends celebrating and partying in what looks like perhaps a tunnel or somewhere underground where they all come together and enjoy themselves. What I like most about this particular example is that the use of low key lighting allows the shot to become gritty and this would suggest negativity. However, Example hasn't used anything superficially to show people having fun, but has shown us something us as society might not see.
We're then shown a group of urban teenagers, who look bored and pretty miserable and what appears to be located in central London. You would assume that with all the entertainment that goes on around and in London they'd be people celebrating in bars and clubs, however yet again as the video progresses the group of urban teenagers are seen together dancing and encouraging eachother. I think the message Example is also trying to convey is that teenagers are not always finding ways to entertain themselves by causing trouble or underage drinking, but are coming together to enjoy what they love most. That is why I think that is a good promotional video, as it shows unity and positivity with teenagers, something that the media and internet doesn't do much of.
To conclude, the shots that the last group of teenagers that are in are probably the only shots that include vibrant colours. These shots are a lot more quirkier than the others, and the group of teenagers are seen throwing powder paint at eachother and dressing up in fancy dress costumes. A variety of shots are used including long shots, extreme close ups and low angled shots. The setting and the props are used appropriately as they represent people that are carefree and full of energy. The lighting contrast in shot 9 works really well, as the background has low key lighting whereas the foreground uses high key lighting. The low key lighting may represent the negativity within an area, but the high lighting represents the positivity of the people in it and I think that that is what Example is trying to demonstrate to his audience instead of dwelling on the negativity.
This music video is an excellent example of a good promotional video as it effectively targets it's audience and draws them in. One Direction is an extremely popular boyfriend, even though they have yet to release their single. However, this is their first video to 'What Makes You Beautiful' and it is pretty evident who their target audience is. They're all five, young good looking boys who have teenage girls swooning over them and I think that this video delivers for their audience.
Their first shot is an extreme long shot, using a beach as the location. The representation of the beach is to emphasis the fun of the music video, as their pop tune is upbeat and would be stereotyped as a 'summer song.' The second shot is similar, and is a high angle shot of a different part of the beach, showing how relaxing and peaceful the beach is. I think the reason as to why the music video doesn't show the boyband in the first few shots is because I think that they want to build the anticipation of seeing the boys, but use a variety of shots of the beach to avoid viewer fatigue.
The third shot is a close up of a hand tapping to the beach along to the beat of the song, and has an overlapping shot of another part of the beach. I find it interesting that the first remote shot of any of the members is of a hand, and uses low key lighting so nothing in the shot is prominent. However I think that this may be used to still keep their audience intrigued. Eventually we're shown a long shot of the boys, strolling down the beach and singing to the camera. They're constantly keeping eye contact with the camera, as if they're singing directly to their audience and appear happy and relaxed. One thing that I do think that they've done very well with their video and especially this shot is that nothing seems forced as their is no cheesy chorography or serious faces, they just seem to be having fun.
The next shot is of two members driving a car, and is a point of view shot. During this shot they're shown messing around and having fun, making them more relatable to their audience, as they seem like every other teenage boys; like I mentioned before, this shot doesn't seem staged and therefore promotes their music video and their single even better. One of the few close ups that were used were of the facial expressions of the boys as they sang into the camera, and uses high key lighting to emphasis the boys being the main attention. Once again the main use of the close ups and singing directly into the camera is to attract their target audience, which I think they have done successfully.
Shots 7, 8 and 12 are again long shots of the boys having fun on the beach. By confining them to such a isolated location it makes it clear that these boys are forced upon the audience to be the main focus in every single shot used, as the positioning of the main subject within the frame is key. They're all wearing fashionable clothes and look trendy, making them even more appealing to their audience.
Within the last minute or so of their music video, they use girls to avoid viewer fatigue. The ninth shot is a close up of a very pretty girl smiling, and I think that the selection of costumes and the way they presented these girls were on point. Meretricious girls were avoided as like I said beforehand I think that in this video they're trying to relate to their audience as much as possible, instead of influencing young girls to wear lots of make up and skimpy clothes they've chosen this girl to look natural and happy. The same girl is used in shot nine, and is a mid shot of her and one of the members. The member in this shot is called Harry Styles, and is known for being the most popular member of the boyband. They have cleverly selected him to have an intimate scene with this girl because they are aware that he is the most desirable, and therefore by using him this would cause a lot of publicity within the media/internet circulation.
Shot ten is probably my favourite from their music video. I don't think that it necessarily represents anything in particular or has any metaphorical meaning, but I think visually it is just a fantastic shot. I really like the idea of overlapping different shots, or fading others to make one stand out over the other. Another thing that I like about this shot is the contrast of the high key/ low key lighting that is used, as it adds a different dimension to the shot.
Our task for this unit is to research different genre's of music and their video's. We then depict these video's and analyse them, writing about editing, cinematography, mise-en scene and post production. We were then put into groups where we choose our genre and song. We will then be researching, planning and promoting our music video, and also creating a CD cover and an advertisement of our single.
www
-Flows very well, good use of fade in and fade out.
-None of the shots were jumpy
-Very good use of props and costumes
-Lip sync was in time for the majority of the performance.
ebi
-Some of the dancers were a bit out of time
-Us dancers didn't always look as though we were putting in 100% effort
-There was the odd moment when lip sync was out of time
-Managed our time efficiently instead of rushing it
Overall I think that our 'In the Sun' music challenge was a success. I think that as a class we all really got involved, and worked well together even though we all had different job roles. Everyone was prepared for filming, and were organised when bringing in props or other useful equipment. We also often gave eachother constructive criticism throughout, for example if somebody was forgetting a certain dance move or filming a shot at the wrong angle then someone else in our class would address this and we would overcome the problem. If I'm honest I think that this is the best my class has ever worked as a group, as we all came together and no one messed around and we individually contributed something. Everyone played their part extremely well, especially Nathan who was our male lead role as he really studied the posture and body language of the lead male which made his character really believeable in our music video.
Something that we could have improved on was time management, as even though we all got on with it and worked well it still seemed to take us a fair amount of time and we ended up overrunning. I think this is important to improve on when creating our own individual music video as this could result in us falling behind in our filming and then having less time to edit our film to our best ability. Another thing I wold suggest for us to improve on is the steadiness to our shots, as some were extremely shaky. This was because we didn't bring a tripod, and therefore that is another thing that we could have improved on as if we don't always come fully equipped then we're not going to be able to perform to our best ability.
However overall I think that the positives out weighed the negatives as this was a good practice for when we film our own music video. We were able to learn from mistakes that we made to help us in the future for when we start creating and filming for our own music video.
My Job roles
One of my job roles that I was given was to organise the music for filming. I worked with my partner Tom and we planned what shot went with a section of the song. Once we planned this we handed it out to everyone in our class, so they were able to have a copy of their own.
I realised that neither me or Tom had a portable CD player or a blank CD that we could use, so I emailed our Media technician and asked if we were allowed to borrow a blank CD and if he knew where we could borrow a portable CD from. Luckily he was able to lend us both for when we were filming our music video.
My other role was to film two shots in our music video, which took a lot of patience as I had to make sure that the framing of the shot looked good, as this was everyones music video and not just my own. I really enjoyed being behind the camera as it gave me an insight into what directing was like, even though I filmed the majority of my thriller opening sequence during Year 12. However, filming a music video is slightly different as you have to make sure everyone is in time with the music, and that everyones lip syncing is on point. It was also fun re-shooting it a couple of times as it then gave you a variety of shots to choose from with allows your shots to be of a high standard.
Here are a few shots that I filmed.
*IMAGE HERE*
My final role was being one of the dancers in the music video. I feel that this role especially went really well as me and the other dancers were really committed as we met up numerous times during our free time to learn and teach other the dance. Our choreographer Charlotte was especially committed as she took great time in learning the dance to teach us all. On the actual day of filming our music video everyone performed with great enthusiasm and performed the routine correctly. Even the shy people within our dance felt comfortable dancing in front of the camera and others around them, which I think proves how well we all worked together as everyone felt comfortable with what they were doing.
My approach to A2 has been very positive and enthusiastic, committing myself to this subject to try and achieve the best possible grade that I can. Like in Year 12, I thoroughly planned my video through a story board, to help invisualise what I wanted to create. By drawing and noting down what shot types that we were going to use, this helped me and my group become more organised when it came to actually filming our video. Here is our storyboard from Year 12 when we planned our idea's for our thriller opening sequence.
However, last year I think that I underestimated how much patience and committment that would have to be given, as when you're planning and preparing to film a music video/movie it doesn't always go to plan and can become at times extremely frustrating. Although once you have finished and everything in your video has come together it is very rewarding.
Here is a video for my thriller opening sequence and some comments that we had recieved.
Then for A2 we were given a task to create a video where we would practise our lip syncing to develop our confidence infront of others and in front of the camera. Me and my group, which consisted of Jade and Charlotte decided to have some fun when we were filming our video and went away individually to rehearse and learn our lyrics in our free times. This has shown our development through year 12 through to year 13 as we regulary stayed behind after school to edit our video, specifically arranging times where we all could attend.
Here is the final outcome of our 'In the Sun' Lip Sync task, and the comments that we recieved from it.
This lip syncing task most definately help me with my confidence in front of the camera, as beforehand I was pretty self conscious and aware of everyone around me and watching. However, observing everybody else in their groups and seeing how helpful and kind everyone was to eachother really made it easier for me to get fully involved and enjoy my time in front of the camera. If I am to be honest I think that that has been my greatest improvement from Year 12-13 as by working hard and getting good grades it has built my confidence and pushed me to try even harder.
I think that because we were given plenty of opportunities to watch other schools music video's (the good and the bad) the comparisions allowed us to understand fully what works well in a music video and what doesn't.One very important thing that I learnt about when researching different area's of music video's were that you must create various shots in different locations so your audience doesn't get viewer fatigue. If you were to have the same framed shots or simialr locations used then the viewer could quite easily get bored and stop watching. Here are the two examples that I used to compare with one another so I could fully understand what makes a successful video.
What I really enjoyed about 'The Fix-Just Got Paid' music video was that through their video us as an audience were able to identify how much time and effort that they had invested, as their lip syncing was perfect throughout their performance from every member of their group. Even though their locations didn't vary as much as their shots did, by using different angles and lighting they allowed their music video to be cliche but still very entertaining. What I also admired about this video was that they didn't try and be really fancy or to dramatic with their idea's but instead developing their idea's to expand their knowledge on the key factors of a boybands music video.
I think that that has personally given me an insight as to what I specifically need to do when I'm organising and preparing for my music video as I need to really relate to my target audience.That is another area where I feel as though I've progressed, as I've learnt that what I want in a music video/trailer may not always necessarily be what my target audience wants.
What was also successful in their music video was their shooting material that they used when filming, using strobe lights to highlight their faces and dances moves which was very appropriate to the concept of their video. They also made quite a few of their close up shots over the top and cheesy, as they knew that their targeted audience would be teenage girls who'd be swooning over them. Overall I think that their music video is definately a level 4, and I think that the only thing that they'd need to improve on would be to use other images rather than just them.
What Makes A Good Video
A good video should always have steady shots when appropiate, otherwise the video will look unproffessional and quite tacky. Using steady shots also shows that you're able to use media eqipment efficiently and that you have taken great care in taking your time to perfect a shot. Framing a shot is also important, because if you're unable to do this it could result in your audience losing interest, whereas you should be captivating them. Using a variety of shots and distances to avoid viewer fatigue, and adds a new dimension to the video. It can help create a mood or atmosphere, as close ups enable the viewer to understand and relate to a character, given by their facial expression or body language. Mise en scene attritbutes a lot to a video, and therefore is key when filming. The group filming should have planned and prepared for their film, discussing and deciding what probs they're going to use, their lighting and different locations.; this again diverts the viewer from having viewing fatigue. A variation of shot transitions should be used, allowing the video to flow easily and avoiding any jump cuts as this again allows a video to look more professional and adds realism. The key thing for a music video is lip syncing and therefore members of the group should take a lot of time out to really analyse and learn the lyrics to ensure that their lip syncing is excellent, to again make it look proffessional and of a high standard.
One of the video's that I have chosen for 'what makes a good music video' is Ed Sheeran's 'The A-Team.' I think the video for this is incredible as it really tells a thought provoking story by depicing moments from a girls life. Every shot is perfectly framed and balanced, and a great variety of shots are used to retract the audience from getting viewer fatigue. Something else that is extremely key in this video is that it really connects to the audience emotionally as it tells a mininature story, drawing the audience in from the very first few shots. Even though there is no lip syncing used in this particular video, I still believe that it is a great example for the different types of shots and the various locations that are used.
Here are a few screen grabs that I have taken from the video and why I thought that they were amoung the best.
The girl used in this shot is facing backwards to the audience, which connotes that maybe in society she feels as though she doesn't really have an identity, given that she takes drugs and prostitutes to pay for them she feels as though she hasn't made a mark on life. The lighting used in this shot could represent her looking for a way out, for some positivity. However it could be interpreted that she feels like giving up on life, and therefore she could be embracing death. This shot is almost symmetrical,which demonstrates that the frame was well thought out and planned. The angle of the shot is also cleverly filmed as the girl is looking up to the sky, just as the camera is tilted upwards so it appears that we're looking up at her looking up at the sky.
Like the previous shot, this is also pretty symmetrical. What I think works incredibly well with this shot is that the location was specifically chosen to connote with the emotiveness of the whole music video. The stranded park is metaphorically used to represent life, no matter how big the world is or how many people are in it she has never felt more alone. Once again, the lighting is also cleverly used to connote with the emotion of the song and the music video as by filming in black and white the sky is purely white, emphasising the fact that she see's death as her only option to happiness. This contrasts to the lighting used in the locations as foggy, dark colours are used to perhaps represent the negativity that she is faced with in life.
I think that the frame of this shot is extremely interesting, as all of the shots should look like a series of photo's. I think that even from just seeing this shot it would automatically grab someones attention, and engage them into wanting and to continue to watch more. By using yet another location it diverts the viewer from having viewing fatigue, which is something that you most certainly avoid. I also think that the lighting is incredible in this shot, as they've only allowed you to see the outline of her body. This again connotes with the girls identity, and therefore links with other shots within the music video. It is focused upon the lower half of her body, revealing her high heeled shoes and short skirt. The props have been carefully selected and I think that this is evident. Lastly, by using heels and skirts as a prop it is using the stereotype of prostitutes so the audience can understand, as I think when creating the music video you must always think from an audiences perspective so they can follow the direction you're pointing them in.
For our class lip sync task I was put into a group with Charlotte and Jade, here is our the final product of our video.
What went well
I thoroughly enjoyed this lip sync task as it is probably the most creative task that we've done. I think what went well for me in my group was that all of us learnt the lyrics in our own time, which of course was helpful for when it came to filming, although some of us did slip up here and there. However, when the final outcome of our video was finished we all managed to be in sync for the whole three minutes of the song. As this was only a preparation before we filmed our real music video, me and my group decided to have a laugh with our filming as you can see that some of our shots are very silly. This made it more enjoyable as it felt more relaxed going off into our groups and doing what we wanted. This independence allowed each member of our group to step up, and learn from eachother what other members of our group might not have known. I think that our editing was also successful, even though at some points it was extremely stressful trying to match the music with our filming. I think that me and my group also used a variation of shots, which made the video more interesting from different angles. From this we learnt that this would keep our audience more entertained, because we wanted to avoid viewer fatigue. Overall, I think that this task really helped with my confidence when performing in front of the camera, as usually I become shy or embaressed. However I feel that when it comes to filming the real deal I will no longer have this problem.
Even Better If
Overall I do think that my lip sync task was very successful, however there were a few area's that I think we could have improved on. We didn't use a variation of lighting, which can sometimes ruin the framing of the shots as the colours seem repetitive and bland. Towards the end of our video there is a tracking shot of a man mowing the grass, which is extremely unsteady. When filming our real video we must assure that when appropiate all of our shots must be steady, as otherwise it can look quite unproffessionaland of a cheap quality. We should have used a variation of costumes, to keep the audience entertained and bring a new dimension to our video, as we did use different locations during filming. Lastly we should have made a storyboard or a plan of our shots and locations, as therefore we could have been more organised and used our time more effeciently.
