Frank Ocean – Novacane: Frank Ocean is known best for his Rnb tracks with his unique appeal. What I loved about this video is that it is so simple but it explains so much. I love how straight forward the video is because usually when a songs content is talking about drugs, sex etc, it sometimes displayed as something else in the video to keep the audience thinking what the true meaning of the video actually is. The song to some people would be very explicit and awkward but this definitely does attract and target the teen and younger adult audience because of the drug behaviour that can sometimes occur in certain people’s lives. Throughout most of the video Frank Ocean sits at the foot of his bed in an empty room hallucinating while he envisions animals, geisha girls and pretty women. This helps to explain what the drug ‘Novacane’ has done to his mind and body. This is successfully represented with translucent figures of women and smoke. He complains that he can't feel his face whilst he rubs his hands over himself as he tries to snap back to reality. The purpose of a music video is to invoke a reaction and give the viewers something to remember in the future. This video definitely sets its self different from other music videos that I have seen because of its drug related behaviour and weirdness. Iggy Azalea – Beat down: Iggy Azalea is a new female rap artist originally from Australia. She is known well for her individuality and how she sets herself apart from other female rap artists in the United States. The song ‘Beat Down’ is a rap/electro/dupstep track where she collaborated with music engineers Steve Aoki & Angger Dimas well known for the great dubstep instrumentals. The video is definitely what you would expect when listening to the song beforehand. It includes strobing lights, colours, a great variety of fast camera shots and syncopated shots that correspond well with the music. The main location in this music video is of a boxing in the middle of a forest which successfully compliments the track title ‘Beat Down’. Iggy proceeds to do exactly that in the video; busting moves on a glass stage, whipping her hair etc. The choreography shows exactly what someone would usually do when they listen to dubstep/electro music. Labrinth – Earthquake: Labrinth is a young Uk artist with very impressive and versatile vocals which can be used for singing and both rapping. The song ‘Earthquake’ illustrates about having fun, causing mayhem, being loud and crazy creating an earthquake. The video excellently displays this with great graphic animations of loud speakers, high tech futuristic equipment in the background him jumping around the space and giving a great performance for the viewers. This would be a perfect example of a great music video because it invokes the audience and gives us a great sound track to dance and have fun to whilst watching the video or listening to just the track itself. The video in my eyes would be described as ‘Loud’, this being because the track is something you would want to blast in your room to get the full effect of creating an earthquake, the video definitely has a lot of graphics and interesting objects transforming into other things which keep the audience very entertained and not tempted to changing the channel and after the song it definitely does stay in your mind and given you a great experience in just the space of 4 minutes. This would have to be one of my favourite videos so far. Outkast – Heya: This video is a very memorable song that was produced during 2003. I would have to say that this video successfully draws the audience in by its craziness and intriguing narrative. I think what also makes a video successful is an interesting narrative that compliments the song title; something that doesn’t confuse the audience and something that is somewhat expected but excellently produced. Outkast is one of the most innovative and successful groups in hip-hop, who have always produced great music and videos. They have a big reputation and have always delivered the best of the best in the music industry. So this video meets the standards that they have always met and I have no criticism for this video because it was that much perfect. The song takes influence from old school funk and rock music. The music video was produced featuring André 3000 as various different versions of himself, playing on comparisons to The Beatles by mimicking their 1964 performance on The Ed Sullivan Show. When André 3000 instructs to "shake it like a Polaroid picture" in the track, there are shots of some of the girls taking pictures and shaking them like instructed, this is the most memorable part of the video and up to now people will always sing that line of the song when it has something to do with taking a picture from a Polaroid camera. Task 1 (b): critically evaluate the styles and conventions of music videos, with examples.
The purpose of a music video is for promotion, income and to invoke a reaction from the audience. Music videos help to keep the artist or band in the public eye after the release of their album leaving them in the public eye for as long as possible. This means the artist/band will continue to rack up sales of their album for months after its release. This helps recoup the production cost of recording the music originally. Music videos can also be used for film sound tracks. For example; Sean Paul ft Keisha Cole – Give it up to me which supports the film Step up.
In the video you can see shots of the dance film and also the music artists alongside the actors and actresses from the film. This is another purpose for music videos because when people think about the film they think about their song as well. As well as promoting their song Music Artists sometimes promote their clothing line in the video to make it recognizable to the audience. This sometimes encourages consumers to buy their products because of the influence of the artist and how it can be worn. In music videos other featuring artists from either their song or a record label can appear in the video to sometimes remind the audience of their successful record label or to make the video look more successful and put them on a hierarchy. The post popular conventions of a music video would be performance, dance, lipsync, choreography, narrative and impressionist. Performance: Performance music videos normally show a live performance from a concert or a live concert set up. This can sometimes include a narrative around the performance. Coverdrive – Twilight would be a perfect example for this. This shows the band singing around a band set up in a grassy area in Barbados. A Narrative of them hanging out and chilling in their hometown works around the performance.
Narrative: A narrative is a music video that tells a story throughout the video and describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events, normally shown as a short story or film. Narrative music videos are normally very popular as it engages the audience in the story and the story can often relate to the audiences experiences for example, a breakup, death in the family ect. A large range of artists now include narratives into their music videos as its different to usual music videos and the story that the artists has chosen to project, may be a special topic for them or something they feel strongly for. Interpretive; Interpretive means something that looks like something else, but has a different meaning. Interpretive music videos normally want the audience to make their own interpretation of what they think the music video is about. Here is an example :
This video is sung by Rihanna and is called Russian Roulette. This video is a prime example of an interpretive music video as the video doesn’t have a clear meaning giving the audience time to inter prate it in whatever way they want. The video is about a woman who appears to of been placed inside a special what seems to be a Russian prison, where the guards don’t seem to be too nice to her. This means that the audience has to interpret their own meaning on the video as it isn’t made clear where she is or why she is there.
Camera Shots: This music video is called No Regrets and is sung by Dappy. This video uses a number of camera angles and shots in order to make this video interesting. In this video we see quite a lot of panning shots as well as low angle shots (to make the character seem big and powerful), high angle shots (to make the character seem small and weak), close up shots to show the emotion of the characters lyrics and long shots so that the audience can see the characters clearly. Also the video uses a fade transition between shots. This is to add a bit of emotion and feeling to the video. I feel that these angles and shots work really well with the theme and lyrics of the song as the song is about having no regrets and I feel that the camera shots really pursue this theme as the transitions are smooth and rental.
Task 2: Plan with creativity and flair a music video using found and original footage.
Title of Music Track/ Artist: Frank Ocean – Swim Good Music
Video Concept: What I aimed for in this video was to produce it with a clear and successful narrative that complimented the song and its meaning. The song ‘Swim Good’ can be interpreted in different ways depending on the person. I repeatedly listened to the song to try and give myself an understanding of what I thought the song was about. This was extremely tricky because the song doesn’t have a video so I had to rely on myself and some online reviews of what other people interpreted the song to be. I came to a conclusion that the video was about losing someone and carrying his broken heart with him. In class we were instructed to produce a moodboard. With this I created a collage of what I thought the song was about and what I would want to be included in the video. I finally decided to make the video about a couple that are constantly battling to be with each other. The video has a clear narrative from start to finish.
The video was recorded in one location which was a house; so this included shots from the hallway, bedroom, kitchen, garden, outside a window, the front door and the road of the house. The main character is my friend who plays the girlfriend who is constantly arguing and making up with her boyfriend. The shots below illustrate the struggle that they have been through (Shot list).
Shot List:
All the footage used in this music video is all my own used on the Canon Dslr cameras. I edited all footage on Final Cut Pro
