Preliminary task editing

For our preliminary task we had to film and edit two people lip sinking to Don't Go Breaking my heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee. This is a screen grab from when we were editing the preliminary task.

Preliminary task

100 greatest videos

Elton John's I want love released in 2001 was performed by Robert Downey Junior and was taken in one take. This song is different to a lot of songs in the 100 greatest videos as it is not performed by the actual artists and that it is only taken in one shot.


My way by Sid Vicious released in 1979 is an icon music video. The video was filmed in 1 hour. The music video is controversial as it show Sid Vicious pulling out a pistol and shooting the audience before turning round walking up the stairs swearing at them. Along with the video being controversial, the song was as well. This is because it uses many swear words and words that were not originally used by Frank Sinatra.

Preliminary task

For the preliminary task this year we have to film around a minute of "Don't Go Breaking Your Heart" by Elton John And Kiki Dee. We are to do this to help us understand how to lip sink and edit as well as we can. By doing this task we can also look at different ways we can shoot music videos and also how to edit and different ways to do this.

OB Management

OB Management works like an agency company for music directors. The aim of the company is to help nurture talent, work with production companies and record labels to match the right director to the right artists songs. OB Management works with Pulse, Rocket, Agile Films, Friends and Wonda.

Emil Nava

Emil Nava started as a runner for film production companies. This is the most likely starting place for any prospective director. This job is almost always unpaid and does what ever is wanted by people. After working as a runner he graduated to Assistant Director where he would manage the video shoots, for example give directions to lighting and electrical departments.

Nava then became a director and signed for Academy Films who are one of the biggest music video poduction companies however since then he has worked for between the eyes and currently works for Pulse.

At his busiest Nava made 24 music videos in one year. When he began to shoot videos for independent labels the budgets were very small being £5,000- £10,000. His most expensive video to date was for Jessie J costing around £160,000.

Nava's first budget was for Kid Brittish with their track "Our House". The budget of this video was £20,000 and was set in manchester with local residents taking part in the film. The video took 1 day to shoot and 3 days to edit, with 10 day pre production time.

Nava has since filmed Paloma Faith's "30 minutes love affair', Ed Sheeran's "lego house" , Rita Ora "RIP", Jessie J's "Price tag" and Ed Sheeran's "You Need Me".

He has now started to make adverts which have a much higher budget and production values but do not give as much cretive freedom as music videos do. His first advert was for L'Oreale.

Emil Nava's top tips are to use extreme close ups on faces hen ever possible and not to shoot the whole video in middle or long shots.

How the process of a music video works

In the music industry A commissioner from a record label sends the track of which they want a music video for to 5-10 directors. Each director then has to submit a treatment to the record label. The director who the record company thinks has created the best treatment will be commissioned to make the video. Only at this point is the director paid. Only the successful director is paid, which makes it even more important for directors to come up with a good treatment.

Jamie Thraves

Jamie Thraves started off making short films at Hull university. He used his award winning short films "Scratch" and "The Take-Out" as a calling card to get a foot in the door with the video production company Factory Films. With Factory Films Thraves made three very low budget videos for a cost of around £5,000 each.

While with Factory Films Thraves made two well know videos for well known bands Radiohead and Coldplay. Radioheads "just" was made by Thraves on a budget of £100,000 and was shot in 3 days, whereas Coldplay's "Scientist" was Made by Thraves with a Budget of £200,000 in 3 days.  

 Jamie Thraves has also shot several feature films including "The Low down", "Treacle Jr" and "The cry of the owl".

Jamie Thraves top tips are to use the lyrics but not to be too literal with them and also to go with the emotion of the lyrics.

Advanced portfolio in Media

There are several purposes of a music video. These are to draw attention to the song, advertisement, to illustrate the song, appeal to visual audience, express an individuals emotions, to tell a story, market an image, promote the song, album or band, persuade audience to buy the song, raise audience awareness of a group and product placement. An example of a music video illustrating the song and telling a story is "Stan" by Eminem. "next girl" by The Black Keys in an example of a music video used for advertisement and promoting the bands new album. Sinead O'Connor's tears in her cover of U2's "nothing Compares to you" is an example of expressing individual emotions as a purpose of a music video.

There are many ways of measuring the success of a music video, some are new and have more relevance nowadays however some are older ways and are now less useful however they can still be used.
These are:
word of mouth
the number of hits on YouTube
The amount of media articles and reports
The amount of times the video is shown on television
The amount of publicity
CD sales
Music charts

In the 20th and first few years of the 21st century Music charts, CD sales and the amount of times a video was shown on television would have been the main way of measuring the success of a music video however these are now becoming old and unreliable ways due to the increasing use of the internet to download and stream music videos. More and more people are choosing to download and watch videos online and more and more music TV channels start to play less music videos and more music related reality shows or documentaries. The new main ways of measuring the success of a music video is the number of hits on you tube or the amount of downloads.

My Favourite music video

My favourite music video is "Tighten Up" by The Black Keys. I rarely watch music videos but while look at videos from a band I liked I came across this video. I like this video because it is original, light hearted and in places reasonably funny. I also like this video because of the way it is filmed, I think that it is quite clever in the way it is done. For example even though it is clear that the children in the video are not singing you are taken into the story by the acting and filming and believe that they are.

How artists use music video's as promotions

While most people may be oblivious to the idea that music videos are mainly used as promotional tools, a fact that most artists try not to make too obvious, some artists make it very clear that the music video is purely for promotion. An extreme example of this, and one which many people might think is inappropriate for a campaign aimed at young music buyers, is 'Next Girl' by The Black Keys.

Conventions

The conventions of a music video depend on the genre of music video. The main conventions that should be in all music videos are dancing, a storyline and lip sinking. All music videos should have lip sinking in it and a storyline. Most of the time there are dancing which also makes this a video convention.

100 greatest videos

Bronski Beat's Smalltown Boy, released in 1984 came 98th in channel 4s 100 greatest videos. The video shows the isolation of gay men in reallity. This video is significant because it shows the band challanging the publics perception of gay men and shows no instuments or lipsinking.



At 96 in the Channel 4 100 greatest music videos was the So Solid Crew with 21 Seconds which was released in 2001. The song involves 10 of the So Solid Crew members singing just 21 seconds each. As the group were mostly black youth from inner London the image of the band was mostly negative and were thought to be an aggressive group.