once in a lifetime (1980)

It is a surprise to me that this only gains itself 87th place on the channel 4 list of the 100 greatest Music Videos as this video is synonymous with music video legend as it is one of the earliest and most unique of all music videos, made in a time where the pop promo video was only just starting to evolve in to what we today know as a music video "once in a lifetime" blew people away with the erratic dancing of lead singer David Byrne complemented by images of and tribes in a spiritual trance their are many theories as to what David Byrne is trying to impersonate some say he makes the movements like a marionette being moved by a hidden puppet master and some people say he's performing the effects that epilepsy sufferers display when having an epileptic fit at any rate if the movements themselves aren't clear then the point of them most definitely is, as the song itself is about losing control of your life  and so Byrne is mirroring this as he is not in control of his movements this video definitely made the music more popular and is received well across the world and is in some peoples opinion not a music video but a work of art which is why it is now displayed in the New York Museum of Modern Art.

Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)

This is the very genesis of Music Videos, the most substantial of the first music videos designed as a way to get out of an appearance on top of the pops as the band disliked performing on the show eventually became one of the most iconic videos of the 20th century known then as pop promos this basically kick started the idea of music videos. The video itself opens with the band in the exact same position and lighting as in their cover to their second album Queen II which is the bands favourite image of themselves they then begin to sing whilst still in this position the music then changes and the visuals cut to a scene of the band playing instruments on a stage this continues until the very energetic operatic mid-sedtion of the song where it reverts back to the dark close-up with the over head lighting where kaleidoscopic visual effects are applied to give  duplicated honeycomb to the original opening shot by using a shaped lens. the music video finally ends with the band playing instruments which then fades into the beginning shot where all the band members lower there heads as the final lyrics are slowly uttered and the lights dim this works really well with the wind-down of the song

This is an extremely iconic video and has been recreated such as this one: 
and this one from 1992 film "Wayne's World"


it is recognised around the world as not just as one of queens greatest hits but as one of the most successful songs in music history and not many people can think of this song and not think of the music video or one of its reincarnations which is why it ranks number 4 on channel 4's 100 greatest music videos.

Virtual insanity (1996)

 Jamiroqai apart from making strange large hats oddly fashionable also make pretty decent music and is known for accompanying these pieces of music with entertaining and interesting music videos the one for their hit Virtual Insanity is probably their most famous which involves lead singer Jay Kay gliding across a room and seemingly telekinetically moving furniture in a treadmill like fashion which astounded people watching as to how this scene was produced without the use of CGI the secret of this is that the walls of the room around MR. Kay have wheels attached to them and can therefor be pushed and with the help of some clever choreography gives the elusion of the gliding but don't take my word for it watch it yourself.

smells like teen spirit (1991)

Well its 1991 and the golden age of music videos is over...or is it over in a city called Seattle in Washington there is a group forming that is taking not only the nation but the world by storm yes its Starbucks      oh and there is also a fairly popular band playing a new genre of music grunge the bands name is Nirvana and they are a massive hit among the days youth and this video sent them over the edge straight into music history.The video was based on the concept of a school concert which ends in anarchy and riot. Inspiration was taken from Jonathan Kaplan's 1979 movie Over the Edge, as well as the Ramones' film Rock 'n' Roll High School this was adapted to then fit the flow of the music by director Samuel Bayer however the moshing and chaos that unfolds on the video is a genuine real life reaction to having been forced to sit and watch numerous retakes of the performance and were then given the ok to trash the stage after lead singer Kurt Cobain convinced Samuel Bayer to let them trash the stage. Cobain himself said "Once the kids came out dancing they just said 'fuck you,' because they were so tired of this shit throughout the day,". Cobain disliked Bayer's directing job and made sure there was a second edit making certain additions. the music itself was already popular and widely acclaimed but the music video made it legendary.

Take on me (1985)

3rd on the 100 greatest Music Videos list A-HA with "Take On Me"


so its 1985 Marty MC Fly is traveling back in time in a DeLorean, Margret Thatcher is closing down mines and Norwegian pop group A-HA are taking the charts by storm with there ridiculously catchy tune "Take On Me" but would the song have been so popular without this Ground shattering Video?

The reason this video is so popular is simply because it is the first of its kind it uses a combination of pencil sketch animation and live action witch is called rotoscoping this animation type was completely original and mind-blowing this was before the sledge hammer video or CGI so people may have watched it just to see the interesting and new age graphics.This type of animation is done by sketching over live action footage, over 3000 frames where rotocoped which took 16 weeks to complete again proving that to have a successful Music Video a lot of time and effort must go into the production. The film is directed by Steve Baron and stars Morten Hacket the bands lead singer as our hero and Bunty Bailey as is female counterpart who is sucked into her comic strip by pencil drawn Morten Hacket and after being chased by a pair of villains they manage to escape into the real world were they are both live action in a final scene based on an American movie Altered States.
this Video one several awards including:

• best new artist 
• best concept music video
• most experimental video
• best direction
• best special effects 

All from the 1986 MTv music video awards

Emil Nava

Who is he?

¡He is a Music Video director who has directed music videos for up and coming stars such as Ed Sheran, Jessie J and most recently Rita Ora

¡He started his career off as a “runner” which is an entry level position in the media institution which consists of menial tasks during production

¡He then free-lanced for OB Management for a while where he graduated to assistant director which allowed him to manage video shoots

¡He then signed to Academy who are the largest music production company there is

¡After that he moved to “between the eyes” before finally settling at pulse where he does most of his work today

His work

As well as being a very talented Music Promo Video Director Emil Nava is also a very efficient one being able to deal with small budgets and limited time frames so much so that in one year he shot twenty-four Music Videos, that's one video every two weeks. Here are some examples of the music videos he has produced.

artist- Jessie J
song- Price Tag (2010)
client- lava/island records
budget-£160,000 (his most expensive ever)

HE then moved on to have a go directing Adverts that would be played on T.V. and the internet rather than music videos this was to get his name out there a little more as it would be exposure on a much larger scale. here is an example of an Advert Emil Nava Directed :
L'Oreal Paris Feria (2012)

when shooting independent Music Videos the budget would have been between about £5,000-£10,000 and for his first Video "Our house is Dadless" by Kid British it was only £20,000 as it was filmed in the home town of the band Manchester and only used people from the local area as performers it took 1 day to film and 2/3 days to edit.However when he started filming Adverts they tend to have a much bigger budget than Music Videos as there is much more at stake as to getting their sold, this behind the scenes will give you an insight not only into how much money is poured into these adverts but how Emil works.

Emil Nava is obviously well experienced and dedicated film maker who's time and money efficiency has made him a well known name in the industry and his main piece of advice is to use extreme close-ups whenever possible.Here is a final Video with the man himself giving us a little personal Background information and advise for film makers just getting started.

what are Vox Pops?

Vox Pops or Vox Populi means the voice of the people which is exactly what this type of target audience research technique sets out to do, to voice the opinion of the average Man or Women by just taking to the streets and asking several people the same question to see what would make our music video as popular as possible.
The  style of a Vox pops  is very particular as they are almost outside on a high street or the location of an important event as to show the interviews take place in a public place to show that the people have been chosen at random as if it is a spontaneous chance encounter.

They are used to show balance in opinion as not to give a biased view this is why they are showed on News programmes to give an impartial view by showing opinons from different ends of the spectrum. This is why they often start the sequence off with a shot of the interviewer making a statement like "opinion was divided on the street". the film will then cut to footage of people awnsering the first question in a close-up mid angle shot talking straight into the camera.Like most vox pops filmed for television ours will be staged as we will have all the questions and the peoples responces pre-rehearsed. we will be asking five questions:

• Do you watch Music Videos?
• What is your favourite Music Video?
• What do you like about Music Video?
• Wat makes A great Music Video?
• Where do you watch Music Videos?

we must interview at least five diffferent people and then edit it so that after each question is asked there is a procesion of awnsers given one after another from each person before the second question is asked. Captions identifying each Participants first name, age and occupation should be displayed at the bottom of the screen. 

Target Audience: Research Survey

follow the link below to find our target audience research survey:


http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BSQ7G39

Micheal Jackson- Thriller (1983)

Thriller is the number 1 music video of all time on channel 4's list of 100 greatest music videos it beat vogue, smells like teen spirit and bohemian rhapsody to claim the top prize and for good reason. The music video, directed by John Landis who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Jackson. was filmed in various locations in New York and Los Angeles It was released on December 2, 1983 and is one of the longest music videos ever made as the full film is 15 minutes long the song only being about 5 minutes long this may seem a bit excessive but as the title suggests there is not one moment of the film that isn't thrilling the film starts off in a 1950's style horror movie sequence that shows Michael out on a date with a girl played by Ola Ray  and the full moon arises and Michael is transformed into a Werewolf in a sequence very similar to the transformation scene in "American Werewolf in London" (1981) this is because Michael specifically requested John Landis the director of the film to direct on the thriller music video. The film then cuts to Michael and the girlfriend sitting inside a movie theater screaming in terror with lots of other people at the horror on screen revealing that the first scene was only a movie that Michael and his date were watching, they then leave the cinema and its night-time, the girl states that she's scared and Michael begins to tease here this is where the music kicks in and as they begin they're walk down the street Michael starts to dance around here tauntingly this is when the whole musical aspect comes to life before the chorus there is a chilling monologue by horror film veteran Vincent Price describing how the dead will rise across the land and there are visuals of a dark Misty Graveyard were tombs and graves are being shifted out of place by the living dead they then march up the street to surround the couple this is where the music stops in order to give a suspenseful calm before the storm the camera slowly revolves showing the brilliant make up on all the zombies and then comes back to Michael who is also now a Zombie begins to rhythmically jerk his head to the side reintroducing the music he then leads the zombies into what has become one of the most famous and iconic dance sequences ever remembered and reenacted in various incarnations till this day.This goes on for the rest of the music when it finally ends Michael has chased the girl into a creepy old wooden house where the zombies begin to crash through the walls and windows closing in on the innocent victim Michael at the head of the horde reaches out and grabs her, she screams and looks away and when she opens her eyes again the room is lit, Michael is normal and the zombies are gone Michael reassures her that everything is ok and they begin to walk home just before they leave the room Michael turns his head back to the camera and his eyes flash an unnatural yellow thanks to special effects he gives an evil grin and the frame freezes and the audio of a maniacal laugh echoing into the night in one of the best endings to a music video ever. The fact that thriller is such a  success is no surprise as its standard of quality production is on par with a Hollywood movie for the time the film budget was $500,000 which is a sizable amount for the time there was obviously a lot of handwork and dedication put into it with all the make-up and costume and with Michael himself choreographing the dance scene and the whole theatrics of the film are simply spectacular and unforgettable so much so that once you have seen it you will never listen to the song without thinking of the video ever again.

key conventions of music videos

Conventions of music videos from dale17

What have I learned from my preliminary task

For our preliminary task we were asked to make a very short Music Video performance in which we had to lip sink and then edit so that the music would fit for the Elton John and Kiki Dee song "Don't go breaking my heart" (1976),this meant memorizing the lyrics which we were given:

Don't go breaking my heart

I couldn't if I tried

Honey if I get restless

Baby you're not that kind

Don't go breaking my heart

You take the weight off me

Honey when you knock on my door

I gave you my key

Nobody knows it

When I was down

I was your clown

Nobody knows it

Right from the start

I gave you my heart

I gave you my heart

So don't go breaking my heart

I wont go breaking your heart

Don't go breaking my heart

And nobody told us 

'cause nobody showed us

And now it's up to us babe

I think we can make it

So don't misunderstand me

You put the light in my life

you put the sparks to the flame

I've got you heart in my sights

What I learnt in producing our preliminary task In short is that lip-sinking is harder than it looks it took us several rehearsals to prefect the lyrics both on and off camera we then filmed us both preforming our separate parts individually we then filmed with us both appearing which also took some adapting this time not only remembering the lyrics but getting used to each others Queues. We also decided to do the duet part in one take and then edit it in with the solo parts later as we were filming just one shot we had to place markers on the ground so Luke an I knew when the camera could see us or if we had walked out of shot.I learnt that more preparation will be needed for the real music video especially in regards to location and the lyric memorizing. Hopefully after the editing process our preliminary task will look as good as the real thing.

  

Vox populi (practice)

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (1986)

2nd in Chanel 4's 100 greatest Music Videos Sledgehammer is one of the most renowned and iconic music videos to date. Peter Gabriel released the sledgehammer record in 1986 and the video soon followed and was played over and over again, it was commissioned by Tessa Watts at Virgin Records, directed by Stephen R. Johnson and produced by Adam Whittaker.this was released in a time when MTV and VH1 were still relatively new and music videos with a wide range of visual effects were extremely popular such as Micheal Jackson's classic videos for "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" this video became widely popular through the same means with arguably better visuals than ever before, it uses stop-motion animation, pixilation and the famous Aardman claymation used for Television programs such as Wallace and Gromit this is a slow and tedious process in which peter Gabriel lay under a plain of glass for 16 hours whilst filming one frame at a time this shows the painstaking time and effort that dictate a truly great music video. These visual graphics provide a vivid picture of the lyrics whilst providing plenty of entertainment for the viewer which won it a record 9 MTV Video Music Awards in 1987 and was announced as its most played Video in the stations History the music video definitely boosted the music itself as it became Peter Gabriel's only solo US number 1 hit and put his name down in musical history.

Editing preliminary task

Today we have been editing the Preliminary task. When we filmed it we had three takes and each take had some mistakes. However we had some slight mistakes in each take. so now we are going to put each film together and use different camera angles to hide our mistakes.

what is a digipack?

A digipack is a type of packaging for a CD normally it is used for 2 or more discs paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside.
it is a promotional device used to raise the status of band or artist by bringing out the digipack rather than a normal CD case as it is seen as a limited edition and premium quality packaging.it can also be used to raise awareness for a upcoming group as it draws the eye as it is looks different from the generic  standard CD case and is often enough more artistic and intricately laid out examples of this are as follows

7-Producing a music video

Each music video is its own and is different even though there are conventions for music videos and some have varying similarities. There is a method however for producing a music video first listening to a music and deciding what theme and style you primarily want and then coming up with initial ideas for what is actually going to be displayed visually in terms of mise en scene and different types of shots this original idea is called a treatment and is used to bid for the chance to direct a piece of music supplied by a record company but I will talk more about that later and indeed create my own in preparation for my music video

unsigned

here are the sites where we were to select our piece of music for our video these are sights that display artists and bands music that has not yet been singed to a record label in hope of exposure.

 As you can see here they have a selection of artists here from different genres such as Rock, Jazz, Hip-Hop so it does not discriminate against any one type of music it just gives artist a chance to set up a profile much like Facebook or YouTube where they can give personal information, answer questions and most importantly present there music

Jamie Thraves

Jamie Thraves (born James Thraves, 1969) is a British film writer and director.
His passion for film making started at Hull University where he made short films he won several awards with two of these short films Scratch (1991) and The Take-Out (1993) which he used as a calling card to get a foot in the door at the music video production company “ Oil factory ” where he made his first breakthrough Music Video “just” –Radiohead (1995) where the use of subtitles and such a strong narrative for a music video which is open to interpretation gained him the attention and praise of his piers he since then has continued to direct a number of music videos and short films as well as three feature-Length Movies here is a chronological list of his works:

Music videos

•  "Just" - Radiohead 1995
• "Toes Across The Floor" - Blind Melon 1996
• "Charmless Man" - Blur 1996
• "Woman" - Neneh Cherry 1996
• "Lucky Man (US Version)" - The Verve 1997
• "Being A Girl" - Mansun 1998
• "Negative" - Mansun 1998
• "Catch The Sun" - Doves (Version 1 - Unaired). 2000
• "The Scientist" - Coldplay 2003
• "God Put a Smile upon Your Face" - Coldplay 2003
• "Somewhere Else" - Razorlight 2005
• "I Will Follow You into the Dark" - Death Cab for Cutie 2006
• "Anna Molly" - Incubus 2006
• "9 Crimes" - Damien Rice 2006
• "Overpowered" - Róisín Murphy 2007
• "Daddy's Gone" - Glasvegas 2008
• "I'd Do It All Again" - Corinne Bailey Rae 2010
• "Dirtee Disco" - Dizzee Rascal 2010
• "Fire Escape" - Fanfarlo 2010
• "One Eye Open" - Cocknbullkid 2010

Filmography

• Scratch (1991)
• The Take Out (1994)
• The Hackney Downs (1995)
• I Just Want to Kiss You (1998)
• The Low Down (2000)
• Negative (2001)
• In The Country Of The Young (2003) Screenplay
• House Arrest (2005) Screenplay
• The Cry of the Owl (2009)
• Treacle Jr (2010)

Copyright

Copyright is a serious issue in the music business it is a legal concept that relates to the ownership of original work or ideas. This means that as we do not own the intellectual rights to pieces of music and as it would cost a considerable amount of money to obtain them as most music is currently part owned by the artists and by the recording Company that the artist or group is singed to therefore as for a music source for our videos we must look to those who have not as of yet singed with a record label and simply ask for their permission to use the music i the video this is to avoid copyright infringement or piracy. 

5-Music video success criteria

The success criteria is what a film maker should include into their music video to achieve a certain amount of success with there video.

The purpose of a Music promo video:

•  Must advertise the artist
• Draws attention to the music (song)
• Illustrates the song
• Appeals to a visual audience
• Express an individual's emotions
• Tells a story  
• Markets an image

Effect Music promo video has in terms of business:

• Promotes the artist/single/album
• Persuades audience to buy CD/download
• Raises the audience awareness or profile of the artist/group
• To make an artistic statement-e.g. Talking Heads "Once in a lifetime"
• Product placement e.g. Christina Aguillera & perfume in "Not myself tonight"

How we might measure the Music promo video's success criteria:

• Word of mouth
• Number of hits on YouTube
• Newspaper articles/TV reports
• How many times shown on television
• Amount of publicity
• Downloads (legal/illegal)
• Charts
• CD Sales