Music Video Research - Disjunctive

Fat Boy Slim - Praise You
This music video was directed by Spike Jonze; It is produced by 'Fat boy slim' and was released in 1999. 
The video is disjunctive as the video doesn't fit with the lyrics to the song and so it doesn't fit in with Goodwin's theory. They have done a dance routine, but the they haven't done it so that it fits to the lyrics but it fits to the rhythm of the music. According to Goodwin the relationship between the lyrics of the song and the actual video footage should have some sort of link. Here the lyrics 'I have to praise you, I have to praise you like I should,' this doesn't show that someone is praising another person as it is people in what looks like a local area dancing to the music. Its more like celebrating for something all together. The dance moves fit to the beats of the music but doesn't have anything to do with the lyrics. The video was shot guerrilla-style (this is not obtaining permission at the location) outside an old movie theatre.
The genre of the video is 'alternative rock and big beat.'


You don't see the producers in the video we can just hear them, so there isn't any representation of the artist apart from what we hear. 
I would say that there isn't much of a narrative to it, as there isn't a story in which we follow! All we see is a group dancing a routine to the music. It also looks like a home video, as in it looks like someone is hand holding the camera in which I think gives the idea of being a video that someone has recorded it on the sly and its funny and amusing to watch because its as if its the only footage. 
Everyone is dressed in casual clothes which emphasises the fact that its done on a one off and the whole arrangement has the idea of funny and done for peoples entertainment.







Calvin Harris - I'm not alone 
This video does not match the resemblance of the lyrics, the genre is electric pop but the video doesn't portray this for the audience to see.

The first shot we see is of a boy pulling a sledge through the snow with a teddy on it. This isn't relating to the lyrics 'Can you stay up for the weekend And blame god for looking too old' as this is putting a storyline behind the music lyrics. So we are watching and listening to two different things. When the music gets a rhythm and a beat starts to kick in the boys moves in time with the music and looks quite scared as he is in the woods on his own in a forest. He starts getting frantic, trying to walk fast in the deep snow as the music is building up which builds suspense to the viewers. When it builds up to a climax the girls start to dance in their chairs/cells with Calvin Harris there. They are dancing to the beat, and it makes people want to get up and dance because of the electric pop genre. 

As I have said there inst much of a story line that follows the lyrics but what we see is women inside a castle inside a dark dingy room with Calvin Harris in a surgery jacket torturing them. There is about 10 women around the room doing static movements which emphasises Calvin Harris to main the star representation as he is the only male there. It looks like they are all idolising him and at one point he ties a girl down and sharpens his knife. He goes around the room measuring the girls with a tape measure, They are all dancing quickly as if they cant stop. It is quite strange. Harris is seen to be a Frankenstein type character by performing experiments on females to take his anger out on his lost 'teddy' that he lost in snow when he was a little boy. 

This is all representing Calving Harris as the 'star' image as there is many close ups and the focus is on him and what he is doing to the females. He is represented to be a character like Frankenstein, we can see this through the shots we see of the women  around him practically being possessed and poisoned.


This is a disjunctive video as relating to Goodwin's theory the visuals do not match the lyrics and so there for it is a disjunctive  music video.  

Music Video Research

Beyonce Knowles - Run the world

The verses, choruses and the bridges are all laid out equally. There are three choruses, the song starts off with short phrase which is repeated through out the song, this is where the set and cast are being introduced to the visuals.
It then goes straight into the Chorus which is repeated three times throughout the video. This is the main source and its where the most busy times are in the video, with dance breaks and lots of bodies you can see that this is the chorus as there is a pattern of the same images through out the chorus.
The music fits with the video really well, the dance is fitted to fit with the beats of the music and so it looks more effective. Also Beyonce sings when she dances which is inspiring to the viewers and so the sounds have been made to be visual. We see that Goodwin suggests that visuals in music videos respond to the pace of music. 


The song is about 'girls' running the world. The way they follow this is having an army of girls, there inst a set story but we see that its girls proving to the men that they are taking over, by being in a group and over powering the males. They are in formed lines and patterns of what an army would look like where the men are stood in more of a clump, this shows how the women are dominating them in an organised fashion.
We don't see how this army was bought on and what the reasons were for having a war against the two genders. This is because I think she wanted it to be more stereotypical and so that the female audience would automatically like this song because of the role of Beyonce.


Beyonce is portraying the leader of the female group and so with loads of close ups we see that she is the dominant figure and the 'star' to the female army.
She is represented as being beautiful with an amazing figure! This is so that we idolize her and look up to her as being the stereotypical pop star.

There is dramatic lighting used to create the effects of the set, also the use of fog and steam to create the intense atmosphere of the deserted barn conversion they are in. They have put the lights high up so that it looks like the sun beaming through the cracks of the barn.
The mise-en-scene they have used is in a worn out barn/factory to create a tense atmosphere so that it makes us think that they have come for a battle, with the outfits being quite formal for the men (all black) and then the women being in desert/cave girl outfits which show the viewers that the story to this is that the women are over powering as they look like they  are quite rough and we feel a sense of dominance. This is also due to the camera angles we see. There ins't many that are shot of the males. The male shots are either from behind/side or on an angle where as the women have shots from different angles, high view, low view, from the side but mainly from head on which shows their importance. Also we can see that the women are the most dominant as they are moving around more and the shots taken of the girls are from many different angles which are fast moving where as the men don't really move around and so their shots are more slow paced decreasing their importance.

I don't think that this video is very literal. As you don't see every day male and female's having dance battles with each other in the middle of know where. I feel that it has been portrayed really well and the idea comes across about what its about but we know that its not really but fantasy. 







Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song 


The structure of the song starts of with a chorus, this is so the visuals realises and so it becomes known when it comes on in the song after a verse. At the end there is a bridge before the final chorus this is when in the video we see that its coming to an end because they start doing different things to what they were doing when the chorus and the verses. 
The sounds have been made to be very visual as they have certain movements to each line of the chorus this is so that the visuals respond to the movements and relate to this when they hear the song. 
Goodwin suggested that the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the lyrics being amplified, illustrated or contradicting the lyrics. 
With this music video we see that the visuals have illustrated the lyrics by the movement involved.


I don't feel that this video is telling us a story. I can't follow any story line within the theme and actions of the characters. There is five monkeys and Bruno Mars in what looks like a bedroom. At one point a man comes on as if its his bedroom but then sings a women's line. It is all very strange but the actions that are put with the song are very clever and easy to learn so that its a well know dance routine. This is word or scene links because he is dancing about what he is singing. Its more of a fun video where there isn't a set narrative to follow this makes the visuals feel relaxed and easy to watch as you don't have to follow with what's going with different sets/costumes/characters etc. 


Bruno Mars himself is the main character and star image as we can tell through the shots of the camera. The camera stays still through out the whole video but the characters come close to it when singing and when their dancing they will use the whole frame. 
We understand that Bruno Mars is the main character as he isn't wearing a monkey mask like the other five. I think this is to illustrate that he is the main star and the others are extras.


There isn't any different camera shots apart from the camera staying still at mid view level. I think they have done this because it is highly effective and its as if they are recording them selves just messing around in a bedroom. This is an amplifying music video where they are echoing the mood of the music; It being light hearted and fun. 

Research and Planning: Post Production- Digital Technology

Our editing started off really well and then we got a bit lost so we started again and this time it went much better as we knew what we were doing.
I think doing more research in shot times and where in the music it happens would of help us more efficiently to do better.
The tools used for editing was defiantly the cutting tool and also the unlink as we needed to remove the sound from the clip and import the original track from Busted.

Research and Planning: Production

I learnt that in the production task nothing would work unless you worked as a team. When we all worked together and followed the story board we got things done swiftly. Also shooting the outside part we got people from our canteen who we didn't know very well; There was a few who we did know and so this was fun to shoot. But I also found out that because we didn't have any music we needed someone to count them in so they knew what count to go on, This was my job and  it was very useful that I did this!
The shoot went well all in all. Everyone stood together as a team, I think the only fall back was everyone didn't really know the story board well enough to follow directions so I feel that it would help if we memorized it more before or did more research so we knew what was coming next.

Research and Planning: Production- Digital Technology

My use of production technology developed through this task as I was using the camera a lot and filming clips that I wasn't in. This caused me to increase my knowledge on understanding the camera and the tripod.

I also learnt how too use premier pro in more of an advanced level of putting sound on top of the clip to use the understanding of lip syncing. 

I would like to develop my skills on premier pro and so I can fit clips to each other smoothly and get used to all the different techniques.

Research and planning

I felt that the storyboard was the most useful planning task as I needed it constantly to see what comes next in the film and also the angle the camera was in.
I wish that we had done more accurate descriptions of the shooting script to help us with knowing which angle the camera was in.
I expect that in the A2 we will be doing a lot of storyboards and shot list. Also there will be health and safety assignments to do as we will be doing more practical things.

Busted Productions - Tasks and Roles

Health and Safety risk assessment

Group task

Things that could go wrong

   Trip over the tripod

Someone could get run over by a tea trolley

 When we all jump at the end- someone could hurt their ankle

   If mike wears heels, he could easily fall off them and hurt himself.

How will you prevent this?

   Look out for tripods and leads and make sure you watch where you’re stepping.

Watch out for tea trolleys and make sure you’re aware of people walking around.

We could do a warm up to warm our ankles up and suspended our knees before jumping.

 Get him to practise walking around in the shoes beforehand. 

Analysis of my own skills and weaknesses during the busted and lip sync video

I was put as the director so I felt I had to take the lead of making sure everything runs smoothly and correctly. I had to discuss with the group times and options to use to use for filming for busted. I felt that I was a good team member as I don't think anyone would of been motivated enough to do the filming. 

Weaknesses i felt were mainly making the team motivated as there were times where we were stuck with what to do next and so i should of been more prepared. 

Busted Video

Introduction

For the past couple of weeks we have been getting used too using 'Premier Pro' and adding film clips to music for it to match the lip sync.
We started off by doing a short clip in pairs to a song of our choice; Holly and I chose to do 'Total Eclipse of the heart' then once we recorded us singing to it we had to put it onto Premier to then take the sound off and add the  original soundtrack to then make it look more professional.
With the busted task we split the class into two and so there was about 10 people in each group. This was to get the class working with people they may not necessarily know and so boosted confidence within the class to get to know people.

Lip Sync Practise