Sunday, 4 February 2018

Music Videos - Getting started

First of all, you will need to watch some music videos critically and start some early analysis of a few videos.
Issa James has written a great post LINKED HERE with plenty of links to music videos that we want you to look at. It is crucial that you spend time becoming familiar with different genres and that you pick up ideas from a wide range of videos. Of course, there are other sources of inspiration such as films, TV drama and books!


1. You need to understand that there are many genres of music videos, usually dependent on the music genre being promoted. Overall, there are Performance videos, Narrative-led videos, but the majority include a mix of both.
Two key theorists who will help you deconstruct and analyse videos are Goodwin and Vernallis. I will provide templates summing up the main conventions they have come up with to support your analytical work and we will of course go through their key points together.

2. Starting with Goodwin, here are the key points:

Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features which distinguish the music video as a form:
- There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- There is a relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
- Genres are complex and diverse in terms of music video style and iconography
- Record companies will demand a lot of close-ups of the main artist or vocalist. Videos allow artists to present and modify their 'Star Image' to the public.
- Voyeurism is present in many music videos, especially in the treatment of females, but also in terms of systems of looking. Some examples are screens within screens, cameras, mirrors, etc.
- There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts; these provide further gratification and pleasure for the viewers/fans.

Please use these to get started with your music video analyses. It goes without saying that you will need plenty of screengrabs!

3. We will be completing some preliminary tasks to teach you a few skills in preparation for shooting and editing your own videos. The lip-synch task next half-term. You will need to be ready to shoot a lipsynched song of your choice. You can work in pairs.

You must:
- bring the printed lyrics
- have learnt the song lyrics before the lesson
- bring any prop you might want to use
- be able to play the song during the shooT.

We will finalise the date after half-term.

Here are examples from previous years:


4. And here is an important presentation which you must go through to get an understanding of technical codes in music videos. This will help you analyse a range of music videos.

Reference Presentation: Technical Codes in Music Videos

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