Genre

Definition: The genre of a music video is the style that is seen throughout. Depending on the genre, a music video will hold certain conventions throughout and will use the same elements as others.

• "Genre is no longer a fixed set of elements".

• Buckingham (1990) argues that genre is a "constant process of negotiation and change".

- Allows an audience to look at conventions and sort the text into groups.

- Genres are a bit like a recipe containing certain elements. This is often referred to as the grammar of the text. Hybridised/ hybrid texts.

-Genre contains a repertoire of elements that an audience expect to see in a media text of a specific genre.

Change of genre - Classic rock/punk

• Punk was only 2/3 minutes long
• Fashion changed, no clean appearance
• More drugs and alcohol
• Only 2/3 chords in the entire music video
• Not as much talent needed
• Lyrical content had changed

Why is the concept of genre attractive/useful to an audience?

- The audience are aware of what conventions to expect.
- The audience know what style of music video they are going to watch.
- Once knowing the genre, the audience can understand the ideas represented in the video.
- They understand the links that the video makes within the genre.
- It fulfils audience expectations.
- Genres are predictable.
- Create a 'shortband' means of communicating to the audience.
- Allows quick set up of character/plot.
- Yet needs a twist/innovation to avoid cliché/boredom.

Verisimilitude

• Yet some genres seen to have more verisimilitude than other - they seem more real - consider why a TV cop show is more real than a musical - e.g. what happens, what inspires it, endings, etc.

Pop videos

Camerawork

• Performers
• Zooms
• Lots of movement
• Pans/tracking

Editing

• Cuts to the beat
• Filters
• Saturated colours
• CGI
• quick cuts

Mise-en-scene

• Elaborate costumes
• exotic
• Distinctive setting
• High key/bright lighting-showing contrasts
• props-phallic imagery
• Actors are young/good looking/image of perfection

Performance

• Changed from basic performance to abstract
• performance is just singing, no showing of instruments
• Concentrates on the singer

Narrative

• Disjunctive videos - no link to the lyrics of the song

Styles of music videos

Styles of music videos

·         Narrative

·         Disjuncture

·         Illustration

·         Amplification

·         Abstract

·         Performance

·         Animated – Computer generated imagery(CGI)

·         Pastiche/Parody

·         Interpretive(Abstract)

·         Surrealist/Impressionist(abstract)

·         Popular music genres

·         Intertextuality – inks to pastiche

What are the conventions of this style: Narrative

Analysis of existing Promos

Oasis – The Importance of Being Idle

·         Shows no band performance – concentrates on narrative

·         Revolves around a main character throughout the video

·         Contains Intertextuality

·         Uses mise-en-scene to create an effective story

·         Wide range of cinematography

·         Sometimes use a hired actor – not a member of the band

·         Almost like a short film

·         Dull lighting, the video is dark throughout

Katy Perry – This Is How We Do

·         Abstract style of video

·         Representing different styles of people

·         Concentrates on everyday life occurrences

·         Pastiche/parody

·         Unrealistic

·         Dancing

·         High budget – Costume, props

·         Many people in the video

·         Colourful

·         Representations of happiness.

·         Selling the consumerist lifestyle

·         Product placement – telling young people that the more money you have, the more successful you are.

 Laura Mulvey ‘The male Gaze’

·         Says that media has a masculine ideology

·         When a woman is on screen you look ‘at’ her, but when a man is on screen you look ‘with’ him. – women are represented as objects

Adheres – Conforms/ follows conventions (mainstream)

Subverts – Challenges

Our chosen artsit

The Silent Sunday's

Finding the band

After looking around on unsigned.com for a substantial amount of time, we decided as a group upon an artist and a song that we were happy to use for our music promo. Before looking at this website, we knew as a group that we wanted to have a song from the rock genre. The main reason for this is that we used a rock song for our preliminary task and thought it would be easier to use the same conventions and shot types. This made it easier to narrow our search for a good song to use.

We then found a song that we thought was perfect to use for our style of video. We looked at a band called the 'Silent Sundays' and listened to several of their song that are available on unsigned.com.  Our favourite of the several songs was called 'midnight wanderer'. We liked this song as it followed the generic structure of a rock song and had lyrics that could be easily translated into a narrative.

About the band

To gain a much research as we could before creating our music promo, we looked into the band and found out as much research as we could. We read the information that was available on unsigned.com and looked at the bands 'MySpace' page. We found several things out about the band:

• The band was formed in 2006 in Sheffield.
• The band consists of 4 members. A singer/ guitarist, guitarist, bass and drums. This is a typical layout for a rock band.
• The band originate from Sheffield and got together whilst studying at school.
• They perform a mixture of covers and original music. They write their songs themselves.
• They have released an EP album with several original songs.
• They have been working for the past year on a full album of songs that will be released in the next few months.

Their style of music

The main reason we chose this band to use in our promo was for their bands genre and their style of music. This band has a strong link to the Rock genre and follows the typical conventions of Rock and Roll music. This will make it easy for us to create a music promo that will fit with our chosen genre.

Conventions for our music promo

Conventions of our music video style

After choosing a genre for our music video and finding a song to use, we have researched the different conventions that are used in music videos within the rock genre. After looking at different videos such as Nirvanas ‘Smells like teen spirit’ and Foo Fighters ‘Everlong’. We looked at each of these videos as they are good examples of a narrative and a performance. They show the typical conventions of each music video style.

The main convention we spotted was the typical shots that were used throughout each music video. In ‘smells like teen spirit’ there is a large number of close ups used to show the instruments in the video. These are used to clearly represent the rock genre and the equipment it includes. We will use this in a similar way. During the shots of performance in our video, we will have a number of close ups and mid-shots showing the actors with the instruments. This will represent clearly that it is a band performance during our music video.

The image on the right is an example of the kind of shot we will use during the performance in our music video. This image was taken from Nirvana’s music video of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. This shot is an effective shot as it makes it clear to the audience that it is the band performing the song.

Most of the music videos we watched included some kind of narrative within them as well as performance. However, the story of the narrative was not performed by the band themselves; instead they had one or several actors. We will challenge this idea when filming our music video. Throughout our music video, we will use the same actors in the narrative and the performance side of the video. However this can still be common in existing band videos. For example. In Red Hot chilli Peppers ‘By the way’ the main singer of the band is acting in the narrative. We have used the same idea for our music video.

 

 

 

 

This is the kind of narrative we will be using throughout our music video. This is the lead singer from Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ acting in the narrative for their song ‘By the Way’. We will have each member of our performance band performing in our narrative.

MIse-en-scene

Another common convention used in music videos is the use of  lighting throughout. The bands/performers use the lighting to highlight certain aspects of the music video and can makes certain points stand out to the audience. We will be using this idea in the same way. During the performance in our music video, we will use lighting to highlight each member of the band and their instruments. This will help to raise awareness towards the fact that it is a band performance. To create this kind of effect, we will need to film in a n environment that has access to lights and can be used in a way that benefits us, The ideal location will be some kind of music or drama studio with a large lighting rig. If so, we will be able to manipulate the lights into highlighting whatever we want.

 

Some existing bands have previously challenged this idea with the lighting. The band Arctic Monkey’s’ have used their lighting in a different way in the music video for their song ‘Brianstorm. In this particular video, each member of the band is in darkness with their surrounding in light. The audience are unable to see or recognise the faces of any band members. This may be the bands way of distancing themselves from the audience and allows the viewers to concentrate on just the music that is performed. We will not use this idea in our music video. We will make sure that throughout the video, the audience will see the faces of the people in the narrative and the performance. We have chosen to do this as it makes it clear that once again it is a band performance as well as the narrative of the music video

 

 

Music Prelim - CD Cover

CD cover

This is our CD cover for our prelim, it is a direct copy of the real Nirvana ablum cover buyt we edited it with James head on the baby in the water. This edit was done to make it look funnier and put our own spin on the cover. It also lets the audience know that this is a less serious version on the song.

Music Prelim - nirvana smells like teen spirit

Shot list for Preliminary task

Shot List

Shot	Location	Shot Description	Framing	Action	Props	Notes
1.	Drama Studio	Shot of band entering. Each member appears on their own – Editing to look like we all enter as one	Mid-shot	Tracking	Drumsticks in drummer hand	Intro shots to show the instruments and environment we’re playing in
2.	Drama Studio	Band members set up all of their equipment	Long Shot	Stationary	Drums Guitar Bass	Intro shots to show the instruments and environment we’re playing in
3.	Drama Studio	Singer (James) steps up to the microphone. Shallow focus used – Guitar and drums out of focus in the background	Close up (Shallow focus)	Stationary	Microphone	Meant to show the viewer who the singer is
4.	Drama Studio	High angled extreme close up used to show the riff being played by the guitarist	High angle Extreme close up	Stationary	Guitar	Shows the song being played by the guitar– Meant to look more realistic and add the performance theme
5.	Drama Studio	Bird’s eye view used to show the drummer playing the drums	BeV shot (Birds eye view)	Forward motion	Drums	Shows the song being played by the drums– Meant to add the performance theme
6.	Drama Studio	Long shot of the whole band playing	Long Shot	Stationary	Drums Guitar Bass	Meant to look more realistic and add the performance theme
7.	Drama Studio	Close up of the singer singing	Close up	Tracking	Microphone	Detail with the singers face
8.	Drama Studio	Jump cut of the singer and the guitarist swapping places	Long shot	Stationary	Drums Guitar Bass	Meant to look more realistic and add the performance theme­
9.	Drama Studio	Mid shot of the guitarist playing	Mid shot	Stationary	Guitar	Detail with the strings and hand
10.	Drama Studio	Mid shot/ Close up of the singer singing – Stood behind the microphone	Mid shot/ Close up	Hand held	Microphone	Detail with the singers face
11.	Drama Studio	Mid shot of the guitarist and singer performing together – Cohesion	Mid shot	Stationary	Microphone Bass Guitar	Meant to look more realistic and add the performance theme Meant to look more realistic and add the performance theme
12.	Drama Studio	Mid shot of the drummer playing the drums – used to show more of a closer view	Mid shot	Stationary	Drums	Shows the song being played by the drums– Meant to add the performance theme
13.	Drama Studio	Extreme close up of the singers face – singing into the microphone – Made to feel more personal	Extreme close up	Hand held	Microphone	Detail with the singers face
14.	Drama Studio	Two shot/ Mid shot between the singer and guitarist – meant to show more detail w/ drummer in the background	Two shot/ Mid shot	Stationary	Microphone Bass Guitar	Meant to look more realistic and add the performance theme – With the view of the guitar and singer together
15.	Drama Studio	Pick gets thrown on the floor after performance – Foreground of the shot in focus – Background of the shot out of focus	Close up	Stationary	Pick	Detail with the floor where the pick will be thrown too