How to analyse

How to analyse … Music videos

 The following is meant as a general overview and is designed to help youachieve a minimum of a level 3. It is not meant to be definitive, but it doesoffer a basic spine.

How to prepare

Step 1. Select your genre of music.

Sounds obvious, but too many students simply analyse videos they know rather than videos from the genre of musicthey will be producing. Whilst you may not have a specific song in mind yet,you should have a specific genre. If you have no idea what genre yourfavourite artist is simply Wikipedia it. Lets use the example of Mumford AndSons, they fall under the categories of Folk Rock, Indie Folk and Bluegrass. Just click on the hyperlink and you’ll be greeted with a list of similar artists. Indie Folk lists Bon Iver, Bright Eyes, Jake Bugg, Ben Howard, to name but a few Step 2. Watch lots of music videos. To understand music videos you musthave watched a lot of them. Before you analyse anything spend a few hours just watching videos, this will help you get a feel for the genre and enable youto spot any recurring themes or styles.From our genre search we can watch the following:http://youtu.be/0KrmxavLIRM http://youtu.be/g6MnpD5_4GI http://youtu.be/3EL20VKlvbs http://youtu.be/ADP65wbBUpc Straight away you notice a similarity between just these 4, there is nature,forests, woods, slow motion shots, soft focus, performance isn’t dominant etc.HOWEVER if you begin to watch more from these artists you’ll notice performance does play a key roll, BUT those basic elements of nature, softfocus and slow motion remainStep 3.Be realistic. if most of the videos you’ve watched feature expensivesets, beautiful women, special effects, a cast of thousands etc then you probably wont be able to recreate them, therefore ‘is this the genre for you?’ If yes then… Step 4. Select at least 3 songs to analyse and read the lyrics. Now you’ve seen lots of videos select at least 3 which you enjoyed. Before analysingthem,read the lyrics. You’d be amazed how many people either have no idea what the words to a song are or, if they do, what they actually mean. How to analyse Step 1. Use the grid to make notes ONLY In your summer booklet is a gridit is designed to help you prepare an overview of the video. As you watchsimply note down the key events/features (make sure you have the lyrics tohand)Step 2. Write up a brief overview of the video you’ll be analysing.

Beforebreaking the video down into key shots give the examiner (and me) anoverview of the whole video, explain the narrative and the style (is it aperformance video?) and then explain whether it conforms or challenges theconventions of the genre.Step 3.Select 10 key frames.Try and analyse just 10 key frames, treat themlike the AS exam and analyse the mise en scene, discuss cultural codes, linkto Music theory. THE MORE GCSE THE BETTER so POINT EVIDENCETECHNIQUE ANALYSIS LINK (to genre)Step 4TUBE CHOP/SCREEN GRAB. The best way to show your thinking isvia a screen grab or tube chop. This will enable you to annotate the imageand really show what you have spotted. This help sheet HERE will help Step 5.Evaluate. After every analysis evaluate what you have learnt aboutyour genre, try and break this down into what you could recreate and whatproblems you might face in trying this style.Step 6 Experiment. Remember is research and PLANNING.If there is a shotyou like then use your camera phone and try to recreate it.Final advice. The best students don’t

just write essays, they create.Why not do a directors commentary over the music video you are analysing? Could you make a video montage of all the conventions you’ve spotted? If you spot an intertextual reference, link to that film/TV/game in your analysis. Try andstay up to date, try and restrict yourself to relatively modern videos.

Prelim Evaluation Post Production

Once we had recorded to footage we took the SD card and transferred the work onto a mac, instead of doing one each and doing it all separate we all came together as a group to edit and all helped through the process. We uploaded all of the clips that we had taken and put them on the final cut pro software on the mac. We cut the sound out of the clips and placed the original song over the top and lip-synced it. The overall product looks good, however, there is one shot that s different to all the others as we filmed in a different location the first time and we missed this particular shout out the second time round, its fairly noticeable but when producing the final video this is something that we’ll have to consider about booking the space for a certain amount of time so that there is no change in the scenery. 

Prelim Evaluation Pre Production

When preparing to make this cover for the pre production of the arctic monkeys music video we all first took a minute of the original music video and cropped it to final cut pro. We then produced a storyboard that contained 16 different picture and information pointers. Each bullet point of information was telling the camera angle/shot that was being used, the actor that was in the shot and also the timings so that when we were producing our own we could crop it all at the right timings, so that the lip syncing fitted in with the original song. Things that I could do next time are to produce a prop list of what we needed to use when filing the prelim. For example

- Camera

- Microphone

- Drums

- Guitar

- Lighting

- Camera stand

We will develop the pictures and change them into reality shots when we film in the production process.

Prelim Evaluation Production

When moving onto production we came together as a group and decided on just the one storyboard to use so that the task didn’t become too complicated. We then allocated certain roles to people; we had Angus on the drums, Chloe on bass guitar, me on guitar and Cullum as lead singer. Then we had will filming and others helping to direct. This challenges media, as this is what would happen in the everyday world of production. There were shots that worked and shots that didn’t, shots that we had to do over as they were quite right but in the end we managed to produce a clip of a minute long that was in sync with the lyrics of the original video.

Summer - Task 2

List as many features/conventions of music videos that you can think of:

• ·         Lip syncing
• ·         Lighting
• ·         Camera
• ·         Band
• ·         Dancers
• ·         Colour
• ·         Setting
• ·         Story line
• ·         performance

Summer - Task 1

 1. WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE MAJOR ELEMENTS OF AN ALBUM MARKETING CAMPAIGN

(THE DIFFERENT WAYS IN WHICH A BAND/ARTISTS IDENTITY IS MEDIATED TO AN AUDIENCE)?

I feel that the major elements of a music video are to advertise and entertain an audience, ways of advertising could be: - TV adverts, posters, magazines, iTunes clips and more. Also aiming the video to the right age range could include everyday fashion and the use of colour can be used through this, this would attract an audience as it’s appealing to the eye. Also getting songs played on the radio is an effective form of marketing as it’s a way of advertising.

2. WHERE HAVE YOU ENCOUNTDRERD THESE ELEMENTS IN YOUR EVERY DAY LIFE?

In daily life I have encountered these elements through hearing the songs on the radio the going onto you tube to listen to the song again and also from looking through magazines like NME. It’s become almost impossible not to encounter at least one in day to day life.

3. WHAT FACTORS MAKE YOU ‘LIKE’ A BAND AND THEREFORE DOWNLOAD THEIR MUSIC, BUY THEIR ALBUMS OR ATTEND THEIR CONCERTS? HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHICH BAND IS ‘COOL’ AND WHICH IS NOT?

For people to like a band then need to both look good and sound good together for them to attract an audience, from this the audience will then decide their opinion of the band that they have seen/heard. Also a meaning behind the music video that they produce will influence the audience to like or dislike them from the genre of video they choose to make.

4. WHAT MAKES THE MUSIC VIDEO UNIQUE?

For a music video to be unique it need to be different from other is that it stands out it needs to be something that’s never been done before so that it will become successful. Usually when a new release comes out I’ll listen to it on YouTube or iTunes and I then decide whether or not I like the video that goes with the song.

Research (youtube video's)