By Rebecca Gomes


By Daniel Barrell

Digipak Concepts

We started our digipaks at the design stage, and each sketched out a concept for how each side would look. Choosing the universally accepted size of 6 sides, which set to work on coming up with ideas that suited the theme of the band and of the song. we also included various references to our music video within our digipaks.

For my evaluation of a past student's digipak I chose to analyse 'The Vixens', a fictitious pop band.



The front cover has the basic album information, including the name of the band and the name of the album. The same information is also present on the spine for ease of locating the album within a music collection, a common convention of digipaks. The back cover has a colourful theme which includes pictures of high heeled shoes, thoroughly emphasising the genre of the band. The back also lists the song names, another common convention. A hand drawn piece of abstract art also expresses the genre of the band, adding a hint of indie and abstract to their image. Finally, it also contains a picture of the band all standing together, a very common convention (especially for girl bands).

By Daniel Barrell

Past students digipak

I looked at another example of a digipak, this was from a student from the previous year which I found on the OCR get ahead media website.

digipak analysis
Their digipak only has 4 panels; it is suppose to have between 6- 8.
The band is present which is a common convention of a digipak.
They have included a list of the tracks on the album.
A barcode has also been added on the right hand corner of the digipak.
The digipak lacks a spine, which is where the band name is suppose to be written.
There are no lyrics for any of their songs
There are no reviews
No information about the band/ artist has been included
The name of the band and album has been included on the front cover; the font and colours used represent the genre of the song well.
finally there is no reference to their record label or website.

By Rebecca Gomes

Digipak Analysis

As part of the research into digipaks, I looked at a previous students work from the 'get ahead OCR media' blog. The first convention that can be clearly identified is the name of the band, 'The Ghost Frequency', and the name of the album 'Nightmare'. On the back cover their is a listing of all the tracks and a barcode, which are both typical conventions. There is also a 'parental advisory' logo to give the customer more information. The relevant images and colours that have been used of the graveyard, a burning candle, and a girl in a darkened room, show the ghostly/haunted theme of the digipak, but also promote the band and attract the target market that this digipak is aimed at. However, on this digipak, no information has been included about the band or album. There is no evidence of the record label, the bands website or the album credits; which is therefore not following all of the digipak conventions.

By Louise Welch

Digipak dimensions

We have researched that the dimensions of a digipak are: 139.5mm x 6mmx 125.5mm

This is a template of a 6 panel digipak

Digipak Analysis

Before we could start designing our own digipak we first had to research the conventions of a digipak. I found an example of a digipak on google and chose to do a detailed anlsysis if this digipak.

Firstly the digipak was an 8-panelled single tray digipak. It included a detailed list of all the songs of that particular artist/ band.
This band has decided to use visual imagery, however not of the band/ artist themselves. They have decided to incorporate the use of abstract imagery which may well be the traditional and reoccurring theme fir them as a band.
Strong imagery and colours have been used to convey the genre and it represents the band particularly well.
The name of the band has been written on the pine of the digipak, so that when owner of the CD stores it away it allows them to find the CD quickly with ease.
There seems to be no reviews from magazines or newspapers however this may be displayed on the CD cover it-self.
Where the tracks have been listed, below there is a small bold section where the bonus tracks and scene section for their extra feature DVD is displayed.
The digipak includes information about the band as well as displaying the lyrics to one of their songs.
The record label is also included within the digipak as well as the person, which designed the digipak.
A barcode has been added at the bottom of the digipak.
Finally the website of band is included at the bottom of the digipak, so that the owner can visit their website.

by Rebecca Gomes

Digipak Research

'Teenage Dream' Katy Perry

Once I had identified the conventions of a digipak, I was able to analysis an existing digipak to see if and how it followed these conventions. I chose Teenage Dream by Katy Perry.
This entire digipak consists of the case with two fold in covers , a booklet and two CD discs. On the front cover of the digipak is a picture of the artist, which is one of the main conventions of digipaks. However, is doesn't include the name of the artist or the album, which is unusual for a digipak, so this isn't following one of the conventions. On the other hand, the artist could be trying to make a point that she is so famous, so she doesn't need to have her name on the front cover. This digipak follows many other of the typical conventions including a track listing, the barcode and credits (which identifies the producers, editors etc). It also includes the artist and album name on the spine, the record label and the website for the artist.
There is also a recurring theme throughout the digipak. The Katy Perry digipak has a sweet/candy theme, which is conveyed by the use of colours and images, including the pink clouds and the images of cakes and sweets on the booklet. This theme is also continued on the CD discs, as they cover in a image of a donut and a sweet.
Another convention that this digipak follows, is that it includes a variety of images of the artist. The genre of the artist is also established, which had been done by the candy theme and colours, representing the pop genre.

Louise Welch

Digipak Analysis

For my analysis I chose an ACDC digipak. The colour scheme and overall theme of the pak strongly expresses the genre of music, red and black with 'rockstar' sparkly writing conveys the idea of a rock and roll band. The name of the band is clearly displayed on the front of the pak, accompanied by the name of the particular compilation. The spine Also has this information displayed, making it easy to loacte the pak within a large music collection, a conventional feature of digipaks. The record label is also displayed on the spine, ensuring that they are recognised accordingly. The back of the pak is very similar to the front, with the same hard steel border and colour scheme. Tracks are also listed, a very common convention of digipaks (and albums as a whole). At the bottom of the back there is the generic information, including the digipaks terms and conditions, accompanied again by the record label and the necessary barcode for commercial selling. Conclusively, the pak, although abiding by a small number of conventions, still does not contain the vast majority (such as a picture of the band and reviews) making it less generic.

By Daniel Barrell

Completed Music Video

Filming & Editing Process - Week 2

To distinguish the chorus of the song from the verse’s we decided to use a stop motion effect. As a group we thought it would make the music video interesting and original. We also wanted it to convey the meaning of the song, whereby the character is going through their everyday monotonous life, but everything around them is changing. To make this effective we had to choose a variety of different locations for each shot. We planned the majority of these before filming, and some of them we found when we were out. The changing background shots included a field, street, urban area, forest, etc. A couple of the shots in our music video were planned to be of the character travelling up the escalators in an underground train station. However, we found this difficult because it was constantly busy, and we were told we couldn’t film in this area. To resolve this problem, we decided it would be best to use stairs instead, as it would still create the same image and effect that we wanted. Daniel took responsibility for the editing, and Rebecca and I both gave our help and suggestions, and overall made group decisions. We had to ensure there was continuity editing and fluidity throughout our music video. As we had included lip syncing in our footage, it was very important that we matched this up to the song. This followed a convention of music videos and also made it look much more professional. When editing the shots for the stop motion footage, we cut it to the beat of the song, so the shots would change in sync with music. I feel we accomplished this very well, because we also had to make sure the character was in time as well, to create the effect of him continuously walking with just the location changing.

Louise Welch

Filming & Editing Process - Week 1

Once my group and I had completed our animated storyboard, we wrote a list of the different locations we needed, and the shots that had to be filmed there. This made our filming easier and more organised, so we knew exactly what to film in each location. Firstly, we decided to film the beginning shots that would take place in the characters house. We used Daniel’s bedroom so we could set up the mise-en-scéne exactly how we wanted to. We made the bedroom and kitchen look very messy and haphazard, to convey the characteristics of the protagonist, and were creative when we filmed them. We included several close up shots of different objects before introducing the character, and we also used an aerial shot of them. For our music video, we filmed at lot of shots at the train station and in its surrounding areas, to show the suburban setting, but we still used a variety of shots to keep it interesting, such as close up shots, long shots, aerial shots and low angles. When my group and I were filming shots of the train and the man’s journey, we wanted to ensure they were creative, to keep the audience interested. A shot that worked very well was the high angle shot of the train travelling forwards. The high angle created more of impact and helped to establish the setting aswell. To show fluidity throughout our music video, we used shots to show the male character on his journey, such as close ups of his feet, over the shoulder shots, and tracking shots. During the filming process, we all had to take on different roles. I was responsible for ensuring the camera was set up correctly, so that it was level and at the right angle. Rebecca and I also had to make sure that each shot was framed well; otherwise it would have looked unprofessional. Another location we used for our music video was Canary Wharf, as we wanted a formal work place within the city. We filmed a low angle panning shot showing the tall buildings to establish the setting and to make it look intimidating over the character.

Louise Welch

Third Week of Filming

On our final week of filming, it was simply a case of filling in the various gaps and shooting the exotic shots that were not time-practical. For example, the alleyway shots (as we needed another actor and it was unfair to keep him for long), and the car shot. During the alleyway we hit a problem. To have me fall on the floor in a realistic manner was dangerous (considering the floor was made of hard concrete) and so to combat this we used a thick coat to break my fall. We also filmed the forest shots, picking locations that were natural but also with clear pathways to suit the theme of the previous 'changing shots'. All shots were now complete.

By Daniel Barrell

Second Week of Filming

On our second week of filming we did the majority of the train shots. After I scouted out several shooting locations using google maps, we travelled to them, filming the platform shots as we went. The overhead shot of the train going under the camera was particularly tricky, as all bridges over train tracks are walled with obtrusive grilles that prevent filming. To overcome this we held the tripod into the air, with the camera attached to the top. It was tricky, but we got several excellent shots that were exactly as we wanted. The weather was freezing, which made every shot very uncomfortable for me, but we carried on, and eventually finished every station and train shot. To get the lip syncing shots correct, I played the song from a mobile phone hidden off shot. Our main problem this week was the escalator shots. Every time we tried to film on an escalator, a member of the public would appear and ruin the shot, which was a major inconvenience and consumed an awful lot of time. To solve this, we decided to film the shots on a staircase instead, which had a similar colour scheme to that of the station and therefore fit in just as well within the plot. This was much easier, as the staircase was deserted and gave us lots of time to get accurate and correct shots.

By Daniel Barrell

Email to record label

Due to our previous research I knew that Keane has three different record labels. These are:
Island
Interscope
Fierece Panda

As required by OCR I emailed all three in hope that we would get at least one reply. In the email I explained what we are doing and asked permission to use the audio track.

In the email I wrote:
"Hi, we currently attending Trinity Redbridge Sixth Form and we are in the process of constructing our own video for our A2 coursework. We are writing to ask permission to use the audio track, Keane ‘Everybody’s Changing’.
Thanks."

Unfortunately I was unable to find the correct email address for Interscope records, but managed to email the other two companies.

Here is a screen shot to show the email i sent to Island records:

Here is a screen shot to show the email i sent to Fierce Panda records:


By Rebecca Gomes

02/12/ 2010 weekly blog

02/12/2010

Today we were suppose to spend time editing our piece, however due to the bad weather conditions the school closed. I found this the ideal opportunity to do some more work on the blog.
Firstly I have analysed a Keane video:
Somewhere only we know:
In total the video lasts for 3 minutes and 26 seconds
Unlike their other music videos, ‘Some where only we know’ contains high amounts of storyline, where their other videos, evolve around mainly performance. Performance however is used but incorporated within the storyline. They use lip synching, and we see the band playing the drums and the piano.


The settings used are dark and dreary; and is quite scary at some points this is a common factor I have noticed within all of their music videos.

The storyline evolves around the band and we tend to see the main singer throughout, the video advertises and promotes the bad well.

Another thing I have noticed that Keane tend to use within their videos, is the idea of abstract characters/ ideas. Although there is a storyline, the audience may not understand this as we don’t really know what’s going on. They have also used an abstract/ animated character within the video; I think they have used this to simply make the video more interesting.

The video matches the lyrics quite literally- ‘Some where only we know”. The band are seen in a dark, gloomy isolated area, where they are seen performing.
In comparison to their other videos, this one seems more interesting for the audience this is because there is more going on rather than the band shown performing throughout the whole song. The performance and storyline is also very much played out to the beat of the song which is another music video convention.Fade out editing has been used a lot during the video, at one shot that stood out for me was the shot in the taxi when the window is all steamed, I think it’s really effective and fitted in really well with the rest of the video. The window looks as if it’s got a message on it, trying to hint something to the audience.





By Rebecca Gomes

First week of filming

On the first week of filming we started by scouting out suitable locations for our very diverse range of shots. After several train journeys we decided on several locations, including Canary Wharf and Debden. We borrowed a tri-pod from school and set out of begin filming. During the first week, we specifically targeted the most tricky shots, in particular the ones inside canary wharf and the train shots. First of all we filmed the bedroom/house shots, taking care that to ensure the mise-en-scene was correct and fitted in with the theme of the film. We wanted to convey the image of a generic, modern slob, and I believe we achieved this quite efficiently through the use of several props. The weather took a turn for the worst and the temperature dropped dramatically, making me regret choosing to have m character dress in a suit with only a shirt! We made use of the time when moving from location to location, by filming various 'background shots', simple medium angle tracking shots that have the protagonist moving towards the camera. Much of our time was taken up by traveling on the train, and so we took this opportunity to film a few internal train shots as well. We hit a major roadblock while filming at Canary Wharf, when we were told that filming on the premises was not allowed, however by the time we were confronted we had already finished the majority of shots in that location, and filled in the gaps with almost identical shots from Romford.

By Daniel Barrell,

Weekly log: 18th&19th November, 25th&26th November 2010

Thursday 18th & Friday 19th November 2010

On Monday 15th November we had been out filming for our media production, the lesson before hand I wrote a detailed list of all the shots we still needed to film or re- film due to bad framing or simply disliking the current shots we had. This gave us some footage to edit on the Thursday, Dan did the editing while me and Louise assisted him, by explaining how long each shot should last and the order they where to go in. While doing this I kept a list of all the shots that still didn’t work and the ones we hadn’t yet got round to filming. To be creative and differentiate ourselves from others, we decided that for the chorus of our song we would film our main character walking along while the background would change. It took a lot of effort to find our different backgrounds, but we adventured out to many different places to find places to film that would look effective. This included a field, a forest, a busy street, an alley etc… We tried to vary the type of shots we used, for example a few Ariel shots, long shots, panning shots and so on. As well as this while filming on the Monday, we used the slow motion effect on a few of our shots. When edited together it looked really effective and worked really well with the rest of our shots. While editing our shots together on the Thursday, we discovered we still had over 30 shots to film, and we would only have one more week left to film. As a group we decided that it would be best to film some footage on the Friday as we would not be able to get it all done in one week.

Thursday 25th & Friday 26th November 2010

Again we decided to film on the Monday which was the 21st November, this allowed us to have a lot more footage to edit on Thursday when we went into school. To make it easier for ourselves to see what shots we still needed to film we added all of the shots we had already done and added filler shots, to the ones we still needed to do. On the Thursday we discovered we had a problem with the continuity of the last few shots of the film. One of the shots there was a train, the next it was gone, we added a variety of different effects to the shot to see if we could improve it in any way however we was not happy with what we had and decided that it would be best to try and film it again. We also decided that we would go out and film on the Friday and on Monday 29th November to finish all of the last shots. On the Monday we planned to re-film the train shots we where having continuity problems with, however there was a train strike and we was unable to film the shots.

By Rebecca Gomes

Animated Storyboard

Pitch

Everybody's Changing - Lyrics

You say you wander your own land
But when I think about it
I don't see how you can

You're aching, you're breaking
And I can see the pain in your eyes
Says everybody's changing
And I don't know why

So little time
Try to understand that I'm
Trying to make a move just to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody's changing
And I don't feel the same

You're gone from here
Soon you will disappear
Fading into beautiful light
'Cause everybody's changing
And I don't feel right

So little time
Try to understand that I'm
Trying to make a move just to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody's changing
And I don't feel the same

So little time
Try to understand that I'm
Trying to make a move just to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody's changing
And I don't feel the same

Oh
Everybody's changing
And I don't feel the same

Bittersweet Symphony

For our music video, we took some influence from the video 'Bittersweet Symphony' by the Verve. In general we thought the mise-en-scene and costumes worked particularly well, however we thought the video was rather boring. This is why we decided to use our character walking down the street for one part as well as adding a narrative around this.

The video for ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ by The Verve follows the usual conventions of a music. From the very beginning of the video right through to the end we see Richard Ashcroft walking around, the is the only narrative. Every so often he bumps into people, walks over cars etc...
the video lasts for 4:48 minutes into total, this is all narrative. However they incorporate performance into this as he is lip syncing as he walks.
The mise-en-scene works well works well with the lyrics from the song, for example ‘Trying to make ends meet, You’re a slave to money then you die’. It portrays the singer of the Verve in a negative manner, as we see him constantly bumping into people, being rude and paying absolutely no attention to his surroundings.

Keane's Music Video's

Keane’s Music Videos

All of their music videos are very abstract. using colour to convey mood and emotion, often combining colours from opposite sides of the spectrum to create strong contrasts. They incorporate a large amount of performance, mainly lip syncing and also occasionally the rest of the band. A good example would be “Perfect Symmetry”



It follows all of the ‘Keane’ conventions, very abstract objects such as broken televisions and towers of cubes, set against backgrounds of teal and orange. It also contains lip syncing and a high amount of performance.

Keane's target audience is men and women aged 16 to 28. We are going to aim our music video towards the same target market. We will do this by using a variety of shots and angles to make it interesting and to keep the audience engaged throughout the entire video. Our music video will also following a narrative conveying the emotions and feelings of the protagonist, and will also feature performance throughout. By doing this, we are following the conventions of music videos, which will fulfil the audiences expectations.

Vampire Weekend - A Punk

A-Punk is an alternative rock song, one of the first singles produced by the band and therefore important in manufacturing their current image. It uses a stop-motion technique to give a very erratic theme to the dancing of the band, making it appear new and unique. The convention of lip syncing is plentiful here, as the entirety of the lyrics are lip synced.



The featuring of the band is also a convention of music videos, as all of them are present and actively involved in the video. The performance is also very much played out to the beat of the song, however, it subverts the music video convention of a narrative, having no clear intention for the character's intentions. There is also an abstract segment, where the screen goes a tint of blue and the lip-syncing is accompanied by moving hands.



Abstract has always been a popular theme in music videos, as it allows 'artistic expression' and is easier to cut to the beat of the song.

The clothing of the band is a very important factor in their representation, and in this case is very 'indie', aimed at teenagers and young adults (the typical 'student' attire).



By Daniel Barrell

Story Beat

Story beat

A different person lip syncing throughout the video at different times.

1- Close up of digital alarm going off, slowly zooms out to reveal messy bedroom, then suddenly music kicks in.

2- Man gets up and gets dressed haphazardly, looks very messy.

3- Background changes as he walks to work, he pays no attention to anything (constantly bumping into people)

4- Gets on train, same behaviour.

5- Goes into office, sits at desk typing like a zombie

6- Goes to station, clearly upset and intent on suicide, sees girl on other side of train tracks in similar predicament, end.

Preparing the pitch

Keane- ‘Everybody’s changing’- They are an alternative rock band who formed in 1993
The song was released on May 2003 which peaked #122 in the UK singles chart, it was then re-released on May 3rd 2004 and reached #4 in the UK singles chart.
The song was used in the TV series ‘In plain sight’ and ‘Scrubs’ episode ‘My day at the races’

Current music video for the song:
-The video lasts for 3 minutes 38 seconds
-The video contains performance of the band
- The video is quite dark and includes some things that might be seen as almost disturbed for example the doll - all black and grey
- It also includes images of the band performing previously
- There is a very brief narrative, that is very abstract you cant make out what’s going on
-Visually impressive



Background of the artist:
- first established in Battle, East Sussex in 1995
- 3 members of the band (Tim Rice-Oxley, Tom Chaplin, Richard Hughes) Dominic Scott left in 2001.
- Keane are known for using a piano as their lead instrument instead of guitars, significantly differentiating them from most rock bands
- Their first two studio albums, "Hopes and Fears" and "Under the Iron Sea" achieved success in the United Kingdom and very high sales worldwide: their multi-award-winning debut was the best-selling British album of 2004.
- Keane's first release on Island was "Somewhere Only We Know", which reached number three on the UK Singles Chart in February 2004.
-The band won two awards at the 2005 BRIT Awards in February; Best British album for "Hopes and Fears" and the British breakthrough act award, as voted for by listeners of BBC Radio 1.

Record labels:
-Fierce panda
-Island records
-Interscope

Target market:
Keane’s target market are aged between 16-28.

By Rebecca Gomes

Past students work

To help towards our research we watched some music videos from past students, there were a variety of different videos belonging to different genres of music. The videos varied in level of ability, some clearly better than other, however i think this is down to the amount of time and effort that was put into each of the videos. One of the videos that really stood out was a parody of the famous rock star ‘Elvis Presley’. The group put a lot of effort into the mise-en-scene and costumes that were used, and focused on the performance with a huge amount of lip syncing. However, there were also very low quality video’s, for example the group that created a video to the song ‘You cant hurry love’. They clearly did not spend enough time planning, this is evident through their use of cinematography and location the location they chose. Simple things would have hugely improved the video, the group could have used a better location and been more creative with their use of camera shots and angles. Watching past videos has helped us to differentiate between a good and a bad video, and determine the positive features we could incorporate into our production.

Lady Gaga - Just Dance

The music video Just Dance by Lady Gaga, successfully follows the conventions of a typical music video. Firstly, it is 4 minutes in length, which is the most common convention seen in music videos. Each shot of the video is cut to the beat of the song, which makes it look very professional and is also following the conventions. A variety of different shots and angles have been used, including close up shots, low angles and medium shots. This adds creativity to the video, and also shows off the artist. Another convention of music videos that has been used in the Just Dance video is performance and lip syncing. The artist is lip syncing to the song, and is performing it through her use of dance, body language and facial expressions. A range of different costumes are being worn by the Lady Gaga to showcase her as an artist. The mise-en-scené of this video effectively portrays the narrative and meaning of the song, which is usually seen in music videos. The props and costumes illustrate the house party that is happening, to the audience. The song, artist and album are being advertised and promoted in this music video.




This is a medium/close up shot of Lady Gaga. This clearly demonstrates performance as well as lip syncing, because she is performing to the camera and singing into a microphone . The performance and lip syncing is incorporated throughout the entire music video.


This is a high angle, long shot. The mise-en-scene and props that have been used show the narrative of the music video, which is people having fun at a house party.


This is a long shot of the artist and two other people dancing. This is another shot that shows performance, and also adds to the narrative of the video.


This an extreme close up shot. It shows a person pressing play on a stereo when the song begins. This empathises the start of the song and also illustrates the pop genre of the music video.

By Louise Welch

History Of The Music Video

In the 30-40’s TV was introduced to the masses, and quickly became one of the most popular forms of entertainment. An idea was put forward to combine music and moving images, and as a result the ‘Soundie’ was invented, a simple machine that displayed the Artist miming the music on-screen. It was also around this time that the ‘rise of the teenager’ was taking place, as the youth were becoming increasingly rebellious and defiant. Elvis began to perform music in feature films, which combined music and narrative. The concoction was an instant hit, and spawned an influx of ‘Music video’ style films, such as The Beatles’ ‘Hard Days Night) in 1964 and The Monkees fictional TV band.



As the 1970’s began, concert films began to replace the youth orientated movies. Concert films followed a structure of sequencing between performances and interviews, such as The Rolling Stones’ ‘Gimme Shelter’ in 1971. Then, suddenly, the genre hit a turning point with the release of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen.



One of the first ‘proper’ music videos, it used a theme of floating, miming heads, intertwined with clips of Queen performing. Music video popularity snowballed, and the release of MTV in 1981 concreted its place in modern media and established the conventions of pop promo’s. MTV was released in the UK in 1984, and by 1985 had 18 million viewers. The genre peaked with the release of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ video, which lasted for 14 minutes, making it as much a short film as it is a music video.

Music Video Analysis:

The Prodigy (Feat Pendulum) - Voodoo People



The images are cut to the beat of the song, and contain a huge amount of perfomance. The plot is more to the theme of a film than a music video, as it does not contain the band or anything along the lines of lip syncing. The shots are fast and furious, and contribute to the reckless reputation of the band. It is 3 minutes in length, and does not use gender roles or sexual identity (unless you count the higher proportion of male observers).

By Daniel Barrell

Virtual Insanity music video

I looked at the music video ‘Virtual Insanity’ By Jamiroquai, the video successfully illustrates the lyrics of the song for the audience. The video sticks to the normal/ usual conventions of a music video. Firstly the video lasts for four minutes in total. Throughout the video there is a loose narrative/ storyline, the narrative is quite brief and abstract however there is performance throughout which is a major contribution to the music video. We see Jamiroquai’s singer dancing around in a padded white cell, the dancing he does is of an elaborate and visually flamboyant manner and works really well. He also uses lip synching throughout the video. The video is made of loads of different camera shots,including some close-ups when he is lip synching to add emphasis , each have been edited to fit the beat of the song. The video successfully advertises the song, artist, album and record label leaving a positive impact on the audience.



The first image illustrates the use of close-ups to emphasis Jamiroquai lip syncing, which is part of his performance throughout the the video. The use of the brown liquid on the floor adds to the idea of abstract, as we as an audience are unsure of what this is, it has just randomly entered the screen.

This image shows another part of his performance throughout the video, he constantly dances and sings around the room.

This image shows the abstract narrative of the video, as well as more performance as he is still dancing. It shows he does not fit in the scene, all of the costumes and cinematography are white and he is wearing different clothing.
By Rebecca Gomes

Conventions of a music video

-Each image used within the music video will be cut to the beat of the song
-They might contain performance
-They might include lip synching
-The video might follow a storyline or a plot or it could narrate a story
-Individual genres have their own style of video
-They are normally 3-4 minutes in length
-They might features the artist or band in the video
-They advertise the artist, song, album and record label
-Variety of shots depending on the style and genre of the song
-Props and certain costumes will be used depending on the genre of song
-Editing depending on the genre and style of the song
-Contain twice as many camera shots and edits as a feature film
- Contain a whole set of assumptions about gender roles and sexual identities
-Often question and unsettle sexual norms
-Will contribute to the reputation and image of an artist or band

By Rebecca Gomes

Music video history

History of the music video

1930- Television was introduced as a new form of media and entertainment, this took attention away from the music industry.

1940- Soundia was introduced, this was like a jukebox which was placed in clubs, it played the music and a also a video of the artist alongside the music being played.

1950- This was the rise of the teenager, Elvis was appearing in staring roles in films. Acting and performing for example ‘Love me tender’

1960- There was fierce competition between the Rolling stones and the Beetles, youth orientated films was becoming a huge success. Teenagers were perceived as rebellious and defiant. The Beetles featured in their first feature film ‘A hard days night’



1970- Documentary films of bands and artists where introduced these could be accessed by fans any time of the day. They where broken up with interviews and performances.

1971- Rolling stones ’Gimme shelter’ was released. Bohemian Rhapsody was released and launched Queen as being successful, it used a great deal of effects in the video. The video followed the usual conventions of a music video for example it was cut to the beat, included a great deal of lip synching and performance.

1981- MTV(music television) was released in United States, this was used to advertise the music, album and the artist/ band.

1984- MTV came to Britain.

1984- The video for Dire Straits song ‘Money for nothing’ was released, the video was a phenomenal success and won a MTV award.

1983- Michael Jackson’s Thriller was released. The video subverts the normal conventions of a pop video. It belonged to the horror genre and was a short film. What makes Thriller different?
-14 minutes in length
-relies heavily on performance (Michael Jackson showing his talent)
-like the start of a film
-horror theme
- video different to the album (chorus repeated)
-video over and dialogue



By Rebecca Gomes

Evaluation Questions

For our A2 media studies coursework, we had to produce a practice music video before we could film our final music video. The song my group and I were assigned with was ‘Little Drop Of Poison’ by Tom Waits. This involved us carrying out the pre-production, production and post-production.
We used digital technology throughout all the stages of the construction of our music video. Firstly, we looked at previous music videos that were available on the internet, to find out what the typical conventions, so we knew what to include in our video. For the production of our music video, we used a digital camera, which allowed us to have higher quality shots. This enabled us to film a variety of shots from different angles, whilst maintaining them to look professional. The use of digital technology was very important when editing our footage. We uploaded our footage onto the computer and used iMovie software to do the editing. We had to cut each clip, to ensure we had continuity editing and the sequence was fluid. It was also important that we cut the clips in time to the beat of the song, which was a little difficult, but the technology made it easier. The use of digital technology meant we were able to add effects to our video. We added a film grain effect, to make our music video look authentic and to empathise the old sounding style of the song.
Before we could begin filming, we had to plan our shots with a storyboard. We started to brainstorm ideas of what to include in our video. We decided to include a narrative, rather than a performance; so we came up with the idea of an arrogant boss and his assistant. My group and I then storyboarded our shots, so we knew what exact we were filming, including shots, angles, mise-en-scéne and characters.
The pre-production of our music video, involved us researching the typical codes and conventions of music videos. From our research we found that they often include a narrative, performance, artist, props and are cut to the beat. This helped us know what to use in our video. To further our research, we planned to watch music videos that were of a similar genre to our song. However, we couldn’t find any, which made it difficult for us, as we had no conventions to follow. Nevertheless, the genre of the song was a huge help for our production, because it gave us a scope to work around.
After the completion of our music video, showed it to our audience, and received feedback from them. The main strengths were the variety of shots and angles we used, as it successfully conveyed the relationship between the two characters. The audience also stated that we use continuity editing, and they could identify the narrative of our music video. However, our production did have weaknesses, for example, the use of props. At one point in our video the cup of coffee was empty when it wasn’t suppose to be, and we used a jug instead of a kettle, which were both very noticeable. My group and I also agreed that we should have used a few more shots in our video to give variety, especially the scene when the poison is put into the drink, as it would have emthasied the significance of the it.

Louise Welch

Evaluation Questions

1) Identity the task as well as the song and artist.
For our A2 practice task we had to plan, film and edit a music video for a song from a small selection, we were not given the chance to chose the song we selected the song by picking a number at random. Our song was called ‘A little drop of poison’ by Tom Waits which is a slow paced old style noir song.

2)How have you used digital technology during the construction of your video?
Digital technology has been a huge help during the construction of our music video, we filmed the video using a digital camera which allowed us to film high quality shots and upload them easily to the computer. We relied heavily on digital technology during the editing stage of our production, we used iMovie rather than iMovie HD because we found it easier to use when editing our first production at AS. The editing software allowed us to add various effects, we added the sepia and film grain effects as we thought these would work effectively alongside our song. In addition it allowed us to constantly change the length of the clips in order to ensure that they changed in time with the beat of the song which is vital in all effective music videos.

3)Discuss the planning stages of your production and the steps that you went through.
Our music video required a lengthy planning process before we could start filming, firstly as a group we came up with four different ideas. We simply all agreed on one of the ideas, this was the storyline about a business man and his assistant who gets her revenge. Before we started to storyboard each shot we deconstructed the song into verses and choruses and analysed and went through the lyrics deciding on which parts of the song we would use. We then drew up our storyboards, focusing on each individual shot stating the length, angle and type of shot of each. After this we decided on props, location and costumes that would be necessary for the production.

4)How did your research into music videos contribute to the development of your own production?
My group did not actually do any research into other music videos, although we did try to find other videos for our song we could not find any. There is not a video for our song, so research helped very little in the development of our production.

5)What did you think are the main strengths/ weaknesses of your production consider your audience feedback.
After filming and editing our video we showed an audience who gave us some feedback on our production. The main strengths of our production was the narrative, it conveyed the story well to the audience and the obvious bond between the two characters. We were also compliment of acting and the variety of different shots that we used, as we filmed from various different angles. However our audience states that there was a lack of continuity for example the full up cup of coffee is empty when Gemma places it on the table, it is then full up again when Dan picks it up. We should have also thought more about the props we needed as these where also criticized, for example we used a water jug because we did not have a kettle the audience stated it seemed unrealistic and would have been so much better if we had used a kettle. Finally our audience stated that the lyrics at the end were a bit random and did not really fit in with the rest of the video, which I agree with. We did this because we run our of footage. Looking back I think we could have added a few extra shots at the beginning and placed more emphasis on the bottle of poison, for example using some close-up shots of the bottle to shows its significance within the video.

By Rebecca Gomes

Evaluation Questions

We were asked to plan, film and edit a music video, based upon a song given to us. The song we were given was called "Little Drop Of Poison" by Tom Waits, a very slow paced and noir soundtrack, suited better to a broadway musical than a music video. Digital technology was a huge help in the production, during both filming and editing. The filming was recorded in digital format, which allowed higher quality shots that could easily be uploaded to the computer. The technology was vital for editing, allowing us to add effects that would otherwise be unattainable (for example adding the sepia and film grain filters). It also let us manipulate the clips in a non-destructive manner, ensuring that we could constantly change the length of each shot without risking ruination of the whole video. To plan the film we first wrote up a list of ideas for narratives which the video could take, referring to the internet for ideas from other music videos. After deciding on the story line of an unsavory businessman and his downtrodden assistant (who gets her revenge) we began to draw up storyboards for each shot, and amalgamated a list of props that would be necessary for the production. Research contributed very little to the video because we could not locate a similar style music video to our allocated song. The main strengths of our finished production was the well conveyed story line and efficient effects for setting the mood. We were also complimented on acting, and the suitability of angles. The weaknesses were its lack of continuity, for example the very patchy state of the coffee (present in some shots but not others). Props were also criticized, with the water being unrealistically poured from a jug instead of a kettle. Our audience also commented that the lyrics which were stitched on the end in an awkward fashion did not fit in with the rest of the film, and that more emphasis should have been placed on the bottle of poison (to express its significance in the plot.

By Daniel Barrell

Practice Music Video