Research

Before we can start to generate ideas for this music video, we first have to be able to understand the ideas behind music videos, what they try and achieve and why some are more successful than others. The definition of a music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song with lyrics. This is obvious and doesn’t really help us understand why there is such a range of music videos, which try to all get across there own point of opinion. I feel most music videos just try to keep the audience interested and boost sales of the songs rather than make the viewer see there own opinion a specific matters. Music videos use a range of styles of filmmaking, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. I am going to look at four different types of music videos and try and breakdown the ideas behind each one, hoping this will help us with our planning, filming and generation of ideas. Also I will look at the history of music videos and how they change over the years, which hopefully also will help me understand music videos better. The four music videos I will be looking at are The Gossip ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’, Michael Jackson ‘Earth Song’, The White stripes ‘Fell In Love With A Girl’ and Editors ‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’. I chose each of these music videos for different reasons, which I will talk about when comparing them together and talking about the strengths and weaknesses.

Music videos generally use band footage to interlink different plots together to make them make sense, making the audience keep interest in the video. The pace of music videos has to be fast with quick changing shots or the audience will soon get bored of the video. The image of the band is crucial to their popularity and overall sales of their songs, which is the most important factor. Music videos have to appeal to all types of audience, broadening their popularity and sales of their song. Music videos represent a crucial part of the music industry. Many artists owe their careers to music videos as they are being given the chance of impressing the public not just with their voices, but also with their looks or moves.

Evaluating each video shall be difficult but I feel I need to gain a better understanding of what makes a good music video before we can start to plans ours. These music videos are all types of styles and think this is good, as I will have a wider verity of knowledge before starting. I felt I chose four different types of music video from animation to the more political video.

Screen grabs of existing music videos:

Editors ‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’.





Above is a series of shots taken from The Editors new video ‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’.The music video for "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors" was filmed in and around Prague on the Vltava,and depicts, in a nonlinear manner, a young girl with the ability to walk on water escaping from a hospital, escaping via railway lines, a red light district and a Romani encampment to the river Vltava where she attempts to row away, only to run back across the water surface to avoid a police boat, all intercut with clips of the Editors playing the song in an abandoned ship. The woman that helps hide the runaway, presumably a prostitute (the woman), changes in appearance. The runaway's hood is alternately flipped up and down and the dog that runs with her might also be different in different scenes. This is all to signify that the runaway has escaped many times before.

I chose to look at this video because I feel it shares the same imagery and characteristics that we want emulate. Although it combines band footage with the story, there are certain themes that we feel we could use in our video. We intend to use the same colour scheme that they have used such as the light and dark greys but maybe put hints of oranges in to contrast the overall colour. Also we intend to use the same figure in our video, trying to show what she is going through and how she feels.

The Gossip ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’





I decided to choose this music video as I felt it was completely different to any other video I have seen. In The Gossip’s music video, the main focus is on the band but uses animation to interact with the band footage, making the music video interesting and colourful. I believe that this music video would have a different aged target audience to ours, as their video would suit younger people such as teenagers. The song "Standing in the Way of Control" is the 'unofficial' theme song to the British teen drama Skins, being used during the ad campaign and has become generally associated with the series by viewers and this backs up their suited target audience.

To get the final product for this music video, they would have to film the band in front of a green screen, then edit and add the animation, which they would of created and layer it over the band footage giving them their finished product. This idea behind the music video is entirely different to what we want to achieve in ours but I feel I should research a range of music videos, not just ones that link in with our idea.

The White stripes ‘Fell In Love With A Girl’





The music video is a Lego animation directed by Michel Gondry. It was shot frame by frame with each frame having the Lego bricks rebuilt, sometimes in a complex manner to seem as if it were an actual shot, and then formed together to give the illusion of motion. The video mostly consists of red, white, and black colour. The video won three MTV Video Music Awards in 2002: Breakthrough Video, Best Special Effects, and Best Editing. It also received a nomination for Video of the Year.

I decided to choose this video as I felt the animation used was completely different form The Gossip’s video, so it gave me a chance to research another type of animation video. The colours used in this music video are mostly consists of red, white, and black, which completely contrasts the colours which we are planning to use.

Michael Jackson ‘Earth Song’






The song's music video depicts the Earth being destroyed by humans, and alludes to environmental and poverty issues in the world. The visuals present the destruction of rainforests by loggers, animals killed by poachers, and a North American forest burnt to stumps. The video also shows the devastation of 1990s aggressions in Yugoslav wars and people returning to their shattered homes.

I decided to research this music video as I feel it has more of a serious and political side to it compared to the other music videos I have researched. It tries to express their own opinions and point of views across the audience, making them take action to everything that is happening. I think their target audience is aimed it everybody, as this will increase their chances of someone making a stand against the problems.