DECIDING ON AN ARTIST

Once deciding that I was going to make the music video on my own, I had to start thinking of an artist or song that I could use for my video.

I originally thought about doing a Kids in Glass Houses or Youmeatsix song, but once listening to their songs I didnt know what to do with it and couldnt think of anything exciting to put with the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrQgZQvGhfU - Kida in Glass Houses, 'Undercover Lover'

When initially thinking about my music video, I wanted to include a narrative alongside my artist singing the song. When listening to a range of songs sung by these type of bands, I decided that I was not confident with producing a narrative with these types of songs.

PAIR OR SINGLE?

Since deciding that I wanted to produce a music video and do the tasks that come with that, I thought about working in a partner with my friend Lauren Rees.
We originally decided to work in a pair together because we are both keen on making a music video and had come up with some ideas and song choices together because we listen to the same music.
Though we were keen on working in a pair for a long time, after realising that it was harder for us to arrange to meet to start filming and pulling together our ideas, we decided to work seperatley.
I believe that this was the best choice for us, so that we could focus on our own projects without having to arrange to meet up to film and to edit together our music video.

RESEARCH INTO OTHER MUSIC VIDEOS

In this lesson, we looked at other music videos to get ideas for setting and location, camera movements, angles and a storyline or layout for the video.
As a class we watched and discussed three different videos. These were:

• Glad you Came (The Wanted) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ggzxInyzVE&ob=av2n

                        The new hit from the Wanted, Glad you came, is a video set in Ibizia, that involves lot of fun and a typical boys holiday experience.

This video doesn't have a narrative, but shows many shots of ibizia, the band mates and other people including young women. In a way, this infact does have some relation to the song.

The video is good because it is fun. Its showing a fun holiday that everyone wants to experience. There are many different shots used in this video and at the beginning of the video they use text to introdue the video aswell as a Long shot.

• Moves like Jagger (Maroon Five) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEPTlhBmwRg&ob=av3n

This video has manu different characters and is a mixture of setting in the past and the present. The beginning of the video is black and white coloured, representing a older setting and shows the setting up of a performance.
The video then cuts between the band members and the 'performance' that is happening with people from the past to create the show.

In this video, there are many different shots and the video has a quick pace because of this. This is good because it is good for the song which is upbeat and suits the music.

• I wanna Dance with somebody (Whitney Houston) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH3giaIzONA

This song by Whitney Houston is an old, popular song. The music video is split between a Whitney singing the song lyrics and other images related to the song. The shot shown on the left is from the beginning of the video. At the beginning and end, the shots are black and white and show a live show being presented. This video doesnt show a narrative but does include black and white shots representing the preparation of a show/performance.
There is a wide range of camera shots and angles used including mid shots, close shots and high angle shots. The artist is also featured throughout the video.

• Wake me up before you go go (Wham!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIgZ7gMze7A&ob=av2e

This is a gif taken from the Wake me up before you go go by wham. This is a old but very popular song. The song for this video is very upbeat , so they have used a performance to represent the video. As you can see, many different shot types, angles and movements are used to show the best of the 'live' performance that is trying to be portrayed.

The beat is up tempo and this video is ideal for the music. There are many people in this video, including the band, backing singers and the crowd. This is very good for the music video because it creates the atmosphere of a live performance.

WHAT IS A MUSIC VIDEO?

After deciding that I was going to create a music video, I decided to look into the definition of a music video and what it should include to start my research into music videos.

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a [marketing] device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium, and later with the launch of VH1. The term "music video" first came into popular usage in the early 1980s. Prior to that time, these works were described by various terms including "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional (promo) clip" or "film clip". In Chinese entertainment, music videos were simply known as MTVs because the network was responsible for bringing music videos to popularity in that country. Music videos are now known as MVs in Chinese entertainment.Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, 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. Many music videos do not interpret images from the song's lyrics, making it less literal than expected.

CHOOSING A BRIEF

I have decided that I want to create a music video instead of a short film or teaser trailer. I decided on the music video because I think that I will be more interested in the making of a music video because I am more passionate about music than film.

I feel that with the music video, I have a broader choice in what I do because I did not want to focus  a teaser trailer on horror genre.
Since deciding on a music video, I have been coming up with ideas as to what to include within the music video but I need to decide on a song choice first which will help me to create a narrative or an idea fully for my video.

This is a preview of the full brief I have chosen to complete for my A2 coursework next year:
 2. Promotional package for the release of an album to include a music promo video, together with 2 of the following 3 options:

•A website homepage for the band

•A cover for its release as part of a digipack (DVD/CD package)

•A magazine advertisement for the digipack (DVD/CD package)