A large majority of those who did my survey said that they prefer a song to have a music video because the visuals make it more interesting, they can see how the artist interprets the song and the visuals help with he song. The ones who said they didn't prefer songs to have music videos because they focus more on the song. So this tells me that the best aspects to have in a music video is to show a version of how the lyrics can be portrayed.
Based on these results, people like to see narrative and performance in music video equally, these were probably equal due to in most narrative music videos there is an aspect of performance, so people expected to see more narrative and performance over conceptual understanding.
There wasn't a single answer repeated when asked what is the preferred genre of music, they were all different because the range of people listened to a range of music. This doesn't tell me anything really.
For a music video to be interesting and watchable i have a few different answers that can help put ideas towards the video like dancing, creative visuals and a story. These are all things i could add to my music video to make it interesting.
People said the most common thing to see in a music video is artistic portrayal, meaning how the artist sees the lyrics meaning. Close to that was artistic branding, this is things you can identify the band or singer by, for example a name or a logo on the drums or like Lady GaGa's outfits.
Lets of people liked seeing a narrative in the music videos, this can relate to a previous question i asked about how to make a music video interesting and someone put a story. Narrative seems to be the most popular and understood genre of music video. Experimental and stadium performance were close by this also goes with some of the answers that were suggested to make a music video more interesting.
This gives me a list of some of the music videos that people watch and listen to, to give me some idea of what people expect and like in a music video.
a majority said that music video often contain intertextual references, in the explanation underneath it was suggested and parodys, where people take popular films or tv shows and create a music video are around them.
Most people thought that the video should illustrate the lyrics, this is to show on screen what the lyrics are saying. For an example Who let the dogs out should illustrate the lyrics of dog by showing a dog. Although not many music videos illustrate and if so don't do it alone, from my research i have found that it is popular for the video the amplify the lyrics by lip syncing.
This is the genre of music that i prefer and am most likely to pick a rock/ indie song to put in my music video, i wanted to see how like and popular the genre is, and it is as a 75% majority like this genre of music.
Editing.
We had some trouble originally with the software and the files because we lost some of our clips when transferring the files from SD card to the Mac computer but we had backups so that it was easy to get the clips back. We did waste a whole day trying to put files imported to premier pro, because we originally was just working from a hard drive, we then had to put the files onto the computer then to premier pro because working of the hard drive slowed things down. When going back through the footage and sound, mainly with the interview with he ranger, because the mic was constantly being moved we had a lot of unwanted sound that we couldn't fully edit out. Because we didn't use a tripod in a lot of the shots we had to use the warp stabiliser which in some shots didn't fully work, so we had to be brutal with some of the shots so that only the best possible shots were left. When editing the interviews we found that we had to cut out a lot of fillers, when people spoke there were lots of "errs" and "umm" so we had to do a lot of chopping in order to have what they are saying flow. We didn't realise how long the interviews were going to be, so first we edited and hoped to what was usable and we felt like we needed to include. We then later had to cut more of the interviews out to keep the video shorter. If we did this again, i would make sure to label and organise the clips before we start editing because when we were editing, one of the hardest things was going through the clips to find which one to use, we should have labelled and sorted out to get a general idea of what clips we could use when to add more structure to the process and possibly save us more time. We also found when editing that we had to colour correct a lot with he clips because on one of the cameras the white balance was off this also slowed us down because we had to make sure that the clips matched with he exposure and colours. What we did well was cutting all the unimportant clips that, although was nice didn't add anything to the narrative and would have made the video longer than it should be and the music that Willow wrote went really well with the video, as it set the right mood for the video with was calming and relaxing. During the edit we also checked that we had everything that the client asked for, like logs, fonts and that we mentioned certain parts of the Hays. We had a lot of technical difficulties, during the several days of editing we lots some clips and so there are parts in video where we had clips over the interviews, which no longer exist, so we submitted a second draft to meet our deadline, we are able to re-shoot and salvage footage for a final draft when our client comes back from holiday in 2 weeks.
We made the interviews the main component in our video, this is to show that Hartshill Hays is a place for people and to get different insights of the different age groups around the hays to give a more realistic insight. We also had people walking around or playing in the park as apposed to just showing the empty spaces because it makes it more realistic and better to show the parks main spots being used, so it looks better than just empty spaces when people are talking about them. We had a lot of footage, so in order to shorten the film to a watchable length, we had to cut out a lot of it, which include cutting the umms from the interviews as they added more time and made the interviews more boring so we edited them out. We adjusted a lot of the colours so that all the footages white balanced match to make it look more professional and so that no shot stood out because it was a different colour that didn't go with the rest of the video. We each had our own ideas for this video, in order for the ideas to be shared and listen to we assigned jobs roles in which we could express our own ideas within the set job role, mine was filming (this allowed me to take shots that i felt would work within the video, it helped in the previous years at college that i took photography so i was well experienced with the camera and experimenting with different angles), Conner was directing and communication and Willows was Music. We all assisted with the editing as it was a big job, too big for anyone to do alone, so we worked as a team when editing taking it in turns and listening to each ideas and trying them out to see what would work and what didn't.
The music video is for "why'd you only call me when you're high" by the Artic Monkeys, the genre is narrative, as there is no performance at during the video, it only shows the band member Alex Turner walking around the streets after getting high/ drunk at a bar. The narrative shows him trying to get in contact and find this girl, after messaging her at the bar and them him leaving to try and get to her house. You could also argue that the video is also experimental/ conceptual because the man is supposed to be high and this gets illustrated throughout when he hallucinates and the camera shows the hallucination and then what is really happening, the camera also blurs out at some point to re-illustrate that he is meant to be high. The artist acts as a narrator and character of this music video this adds authenticity to the video. Goodwin believed that music videos should ignore common narrative but most current music videos include this one do include a strong narrative that show the songwriters vision of what the song is about.
Hey Ya! By the Outkast music video is a narrative and performance video. It's narrative because before the song starts the video shoes the members of Outkast in the dressing room talking to a manager, then moving onto the stage to perform. It's a narrative of a performance. Then as they are singing and playing Hey ya! on stage it turns into a performance. As they are playing on stage the video also shows the show being played in different homes and the audience reacting to the performance, making it narrative because it is structured. The lyrics in the video are amplified by the artist lip syncing the video, emphasising the words as he sings along. The visuals go with the music video, it amplifies the music, as it is a performance and they are performing the song. This video has a frame within a frame as when the song is introduced they are seen on a TV and watching this from a another screen, makes it a frame within a frame and this breaks the fourth wall and so this could be argued as a type of voyeurism as the audience see's what they don't usually see. The beats within the song are shown by the dancing from the main singer, his movements fit with the beats of the song throughout.
This music video is Katy Perrys Hot n Cold. This video is both performance and narrative , as it does have a narrative of a man changing his mind at a wedding, and during the narrative it has some performance from the singer in different locations, one on stage with a band, another on the street with backup dancers. The music video illustrates the lyrics as she lip syncs throughout the whole video, this is one of the conventions set up by Adrew Goodwin as mentioned in his book "dancing in the distraction factory", although the narrative and performance illustrates the lyrics as Katy chases her man and beats him up because he changes his mind, he is Hot n cold". In all of Katy Perrys music videos, it features Katy Perry, you could argue that this is the branding and unique selling point for the video it is also it's star image. She was during the video rips of part of her dress, so that she is wearing a small outfit, you could argue that this is voyeurism because of this outfit. To help create authenticity is Katy Perry being the narrator and actress in the video because it's like her telling the story and showing it however the reminder that it is a music video comes from the lip syncing.
This music video by Green day for the song 21 guns, is a narrative and performance video. This is shown through a narrative staring a couple trapped in a room with bullets flying through the walls, and then the band playing the song. Both the narrative and performance is happening at the same time and the clips go back and forth between the performance and narrative. Goodwin though that for their roles in advertising, music videos should ignore common narrative, and this is what this music video does as the narrative isn't clearly explained and can be seen as open for interpretation, also the narrative is interrupted by the performance clips. The lyrics, to a certain extent amplifies and illustrates the video. It amplifies because the band lip sync, so it enhances and amplifies the lyrics. The illustration comes from the chorus, as when the chorus starts and the words "21 guns" gets sung, there are bullets flying through the room, illustrating 21 guns. Nearing the end of the video near the 3:26 mark, the music picks up a fast beat and the clips switch to match this beat, it changes every beat to the couple, to the band and back and forth till the music slows down, before it slows down their are explosions that match the beat of the music that adds and amplifying factor to the music because the beats become visual. Before this the music slows down and the lighting turns to low key spotlight lighting to match the slower, more dramatic tone of the music video.
This music video is Hall of fame by The Script and Will.i.am. This video is performance and narrative, as it is performed by both artists in a warhorse but it is broken up with clips form the narrative about a Boxer and a Ballet dancer. The lyrics are amplified by the lip syncing of the artists and illustrated by the narrative of the boxer and ballet dancer as it shows what they are going to become, demonstrating the "hall of fame". The beat of the song can be seen in the clips of the performance as, at the beginning you see the piano being played with directly shows the music and beat but through the clips of the performance you can see the light flickering to the beat. There is a part toward the end where the beat is amplified as the ballet dancer feels the beat from a speaker and the music becomes distorted but the beat is still clear. The music video contains the star image of the lead member of The Script collaborating with Will.I.Am, it is more advertising when both starts are seen on screen.
