The song we have decided to use for the music video.

The song that me and my partner have decided to use is 'Lifetime' by Emeli Sande. After researching different genres of music we have found that this song has a has a mixture of different sounds which make it seem as though lots of sub genres are used. This includes a bit of pop, soul, upbeat with instruments such as the piano etc.
Emeli Sande is a British artist who is most well known for her soul/RnB/Jazz ballads and records although after looking at some of her other music from her album we have seen that sometimes she has upbeat songs as well as slow songs such as her song 'Next to Me' which has made it to number one in the UK. We thought of good ideas to do with this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpdhNFFk5yY

For this song we have noticed that you can only hear one singer throughout which means that if you were going to use a band for the music video we would have to address them to play just the instruments so it looks like more of a band. In the song you can distinctively hear what instruments are playing such as a drum set, tambourine and a piano. As there are three members of our band we can have each of them playing each of the instruments. To make the band more different we want one of the band members to play the keyboard with the keyboard stand while the other is playing the tambourine. The reason we chose one of the band members playing a small instruments such as the tambourine is because we said that that band member was usually the 'drummer' but for this song she wanted to 'show her musical versatility'.
We are trying to follow conventions of bands such as Maroon 5, The Script as these bands have a lead singer with the other band members playing other instruments on stage.

The video below shows British boy band Coldplay music video called Fix You which shows some of the ideas that would be good to follow in our music video. There are quite a few close-up and pans in the video plus the jump cuts that switch to the performance scenes. The video is both narrative and performance based.

The Script-Hall of Fame

The reason I have shown you this video to look at is because it clearly follows a narrative and performance based video.

Background Information into RnB/Soul/Blues music

The Definition:

Soul music is a combination of R&B and gospel, and began in the late 1950s in the United States. Soul differentiates from R&B because of Soul's use of gospel-music devices, its greater emphasis on vocalists and its merging of religious and secular themes. Soul traces its roots to four different sources: racial, geographical, historical and economical factors. The 1950s recordings of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and James Brown are commonly considered the beginnings of soul music.

Where It Comes From:

Broadly speaking, Soul comes from a mixture of the sacred (i.e. gospel) and the profane (blues). Blues mainly praised fleshly desires, whereas gospel was more oriented toward spiritual inspiration. Soul music exploded in the 1960s and ruled the black music charts throughout the decade, and inspired many other music styles. Although Soul's popularity has waned over the years, it's impact and influence can still be heard in many musical styles, including Funk, Neo-Soul and contemporary pop.

Common Artists:

• Mary J Blige
• Joss Stone-(I would say Joss stone is more of a retro soul singer as she has a hippy style and more of the 'jazz' style of music.
• Antoney Hamilton

Analysis of Soul/RnB/Jazz music video

Emeli Sande

The general sound of the above song by Emeli Sande is quite similar to the song that we have chosen for our music video as it is quite upbeat with a variety of instruments used. This included drums, piano etc. As the music video starts of with an establishing shot it shows the 'emptiness' of the room as it is a big space connoting 'isolation', which in turn links to the song lyrics as she starts of with negative lyrics but the chorus 'next to me' connotes something good. The shots change quite a few times within the first few seconds. this includes high angle shots and close ups of the artist playing the piano and the drummer. In general the colour scheme for the music video is quite 'dull' i.e. the concrete floors of the open space and plain walls making it seem even bigger. The artist is dressed in fairly casual clothes such as a long brown coat and high boots, this shows sophistication as well as the brown coat connoting that she is maybe trying to hide something as in 'feelings' inside her self. This in turn changes when the lights go out in the middle of the video and spot lights come on to highlight the artist playing on the piano and the drummer. Within the shot I also feel that there are quite a few close up and low angle shots used to show power in a way and maybe linking to the lyrics as problems can be solved 'if you have that special someone' and so she is a bigger person. The spotlights also connote that all concentration should be on the artist and her music which is a juxtaposition with the establishing long distance shots in the beginning to the close ups used after. The location of the artist changes again at the chorus as she is in a white background connoting the good aspect of the song which links again to the lyrics 'next to me'. The close up show she is trying to capture the audiences attention who may feel her emotions and to connect with them. The main camera angles used here are long shots, close ups, and a great establishing shot in the beginning, as well as an eye line match when the drummer looks down at the drum set while playing.

Mary J Blige 

This video is a narrative based video which may be linked to how most RnB/Soul are set out. This particular video is to do with a 'relationship not going well'. The video seems to have quite a glamorous opening as it shows an expensive car first which then jumps to a hotel room and the writing at the bottom goes with the piano playing and makes it seem more elegant. The editing used are quite 'slow motion' to go with the theme of the song. There is a lot of light in the video but contrasts with the night setting. The colour scheme of gold, white and black connotes a wealthiness. There are a variety of shots generally used throughout the video such as close ups and mid shots. Through the middle of the video the location is changed to a party setting with campaign  Near to the end however, there is a performance based story line as the artist starts to perform on stage. I would say that all in all it is quite a conventional RnB/Soul music video as the artist is dressed in 'glamorous' clothes showing the 'RnB' side to it, while her ethnicity is black African. The main camera angles used here are close ups because it is quite and emotional song. There is also tracking used to follow the artist while a editing technique called 'slow montage' is used to show how serious she is, and make some scenes seem more dramatic.

Alicia Keys

Unlike the other music videos I will be briefly analyzing this video on the Mise en Scene, costumes and conventions of a stereotypical Soul/RnB artist.

• Alicia Keys is obviously a mix race singer but yet again the image that is conveyed is that 'glamorous clothes' linked to this sort of music because it is quite upbeat but slow too. 
• There is also a narrative behind the music video because it seems she is showing some sort of role play. In contrast to Emelie Sande's song 'Next to Me' which is just performance based because she is playing the piano.

• The setting has a 'sensual' feel with the deep red colours and other dark colours this can connote that she is relating the song to a love interest or is about a love interest. 
• Her dress code in the music video is quite elegant with the long dresses and vibrant colours contrasting with the dark lighting of the background 
• The camera angles used are long shots to show what she is wearing which is supposed to give of a 'sex appeal'.
• While the mid and close up shows how she is feeling which is happy.
• The cuts are quite frequent to the next shots.

Research of music videos

In today's lesson I am going to be researching into different music genres and analyzing them so I can get a idea of what different conventions are needed when making my own music video and to give me more of an idea of what song to pick for my band and what genre, this way I can see what iconography relates to each genre of music.

R&B is a wide music genre which can also collaborates with other sub genres such as soul, pop, rock, hip hop etc. Here is and example of a R&B music video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNM5HW13_O8

Mise en scene:
In this music video the mise en scene of the settings are mostly grey and black, the setting seems to be located in a garage and there are some chains used as props, the coventions of all thses show an edgy side to the artist and most of the colours and props would be linked to masculinity. Looking at this music video I think it mainly promotes power becasue of all the low angle camara shots and colour scheme.
Main Camera Angles/shot and movements

0.07- Low angle shot
0.18-0.27-Tracking/low angle
0.37-Mid shot
0.40-Close up
0.47-low angle/mid shot
0.57-tilted camara
1.28-low angle
1.35-long shot
1.38-39- different scene/ jump cut
1.48-mid shot/long shot
2.24-side of camara
3.39-40-walking towards verticle movemnet up
3.50-close up of lighter
3.54-long shot/low angle of explosion as artist walks of

In the video you mostly see shaky camera angles which gives a distorted image.The low angle shots would mostly be used to show what kind of a  powerful person Beyonce is.

Main editing techniques 

• Slow montage is used in the beginning when Beyonce is walking to have a more dramatic effect as all attention is on her.
• There tends to be a eye line match in the beginning when Beyonce is walking it shows her from the back and front.
• There are quite a few basic cuts to show the different camera angles.
• There are also jump cuts to show disorganization-0.10-0.14-Jump cuts.

Sound

• There is diegetic sound in the beginning when the music hasn't started.
• The direct sound is of course the music.

 Hip Hop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVA-xTBeHyM&feature=related












Mise en scene:
The mise en scene of this music video is quite dark, as the setting seems to be in a 'run down area' because of fire in the background the props such as cars upside down, big tunnels and crowd of people with weapons and wearing clothes to covers their mouths. You can also mainly see different ethnic people in the video, this is maybe because Hip Hop music is associated with 'black' people as it has mainly been originated from America. The music video seems concept based although the mob of people with weapons and looking angry connotes that there is a narrative story behind it.

Main Camera Angles/shot and movements

• 0.15-there is a close up
• 0.40-close up of the female artist
• 0.48-close up of the artists face
• 0.53-long shot showing crowd of people
• 1.31-low angle shot makes artist seem more in power  
• 2.36-37-fast tilt up
• 2.55-zoom

Main editing techniques

• 2.40-Jump cuts shows disorganization
• There is a slight pan used when circling around Jay-Z
• 3.13-14-transition 'fade' is used to move to next scene, so it moves more swiftly.
• 3.50-cross cutting used from Kanye West singing to the screen to smashing window of a car.
• 4.00-'slow montage effect used to show a dramatic scene.
• Cutting rate is quite frequent.

Sound

• Diegetic sound used in the beginning when it shows the mob of people chanting, but you can also hear the non-diegetic sound becoming louder till it overtakes.
• The non-diegetic sound is mainly studio based sounds and you can hear a clear bass of music which you instantly link to Hip-Hop.

Pop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owJHNSF9bm0

Mise en scene:
The mise en scene of this music video has iconography clearly linked to the genre pop as the girl group are wearing very bright coloured dresses and there is dancing which connotes 'fun'. The setting on the other hand and the band members elegant dress style contrasts with the song but then again when the diegetic sound changes to non-diegetic sound you can tell the music is going to be more upbeat than what the audience were expecting. The choyographed dance also connotes Pop music as this is again something you would expect to find in a pop video as well as the hair and make-up of the band and happy expressions.

Main Camera Angles/shot and movements

• Starts with a establishing shot
• 0.09-changes to a close up of the groups feet then gradually tilts up till it cuts  to a long shot of the group of girls coming in.
• First close up is at 0.14 when it shows the guitar, this is because it is the first sound you hear and contrasts with the setting of a elegant hall and what the band members are wearing.
• 0.28-close up of Nadine's face
• 0.32-two shot close up of two of the band members
• 0.51-is a pan to the left to show Cheryl Cole again, which then shows a low angle of her, connoting an usual position going with what she is doing.
• 2.26-to show performance of band long shots are used

Main Editing techniques

• In the beginning, there is a effect on the video to make it seem like a 60's theme with the writing introducing the band.
• This effect soon changes to brighter colours as it shows close up of the guitar.
• 0.20-21-shows eye line match of what Cheryl Cole is looking at, connoting cheekiness as it seems she has taken a fancy to this performer.
• 0.29-Cross cutting to the man in slow motion, going with the lyrics 'you can't read a mans mind'
• There are a few normal cuts to show different scenes in the music video as well as jump cuts
• 0.59-1.14- There are certain slow fades of transition to show one band member, the transitions change from long shots, to mid and close ups, going with the slow part of the song.
• Then there are jump cuts again to show each of the girls
• Effect of slow montage is used

Sound


Jazz/Soul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJAfLE39ZZ8

Mise en scene:
The mise en scene for the video is not as upbeat as other 'jazz' songs as it is not performance based either but more narrative based. The video seems to show a funeral and you can tell because of the props such as the funeral cars, the black dressed people and grey camera technique used which may show how the artist is feeling due to losing someone. The box at the end is smaller than what you would expect because I think the audience were expecting to see a human sized burial box. This may connote that she is talking about her own 'broken heart' and how she has to put it to rest now and move on because her 'love interest' has left her.

Main Camera Angles/shot and movements 

• Starts with a establishing shot of the room 
• Pan across to show funeral people
• 0.18-close up of artists face as she sings, shows emotions.
• The camera angle seems to be quite high at 0.18.
• 0.39-extream close up can link to the lyrics 'my tears dry' to show what she is feeling.
• The close up of her shoes while it tilts up to show her face.
• 0.55-a long shot to show maybe what she is wearing 'all black' showing how she is attending the funeral.
• 1.22-shows pan following her outside the house while people escort her to car.
• long shot of house while car drives off.
• 1.37-low angle of showing cars, maybe connoting that she is bigger than him now as it is a sad song.
• 2.00-birds eye view shot of her getting out of car, it goes with the lyrics 'tiny penny rolling', making her look 'small' to the world now without this person.
• The camera zooms out at 2.05 to show the line up of cars and people in the funeral.
• 2.15-the artist walking towards the camera as it tracks away from her.

Main Editing techniques 

• Slow montage in some scenes of the video 
• The are frequent cuts to the next scene.
• 3.47-48-Eye line match used to show funeral box
• Sudden jump cut to the extream close up of her eyes.

Sound

•  The non-diegetic sound is slow, key instruments heard are piano, violin, drum and tambourine. This are all instruments that you could link to soul/jazz music and conveys a image to go with the sad theme of the music video which is showing a funeral.

Rock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH9A6tn_P6g

Mise en scene:
The mise en scene of this music video is quite like the stereotypical iconography of a rock/punk music genre from the setting of the music video to the dark clothing of each of the band members. The general video is performance based and you can see the stage presence is all over the place with alot of head nodding. Each band member allocated with and instrument and a lead singer. Like most Rock/punk style music videos, the instruments are drums, electric guitar etc, instruments that make loud and sharp sounds toe disorganization. The setting seems to be in a small dark room with one light bulb used as a main prop, there is a lot of flash lighting. The lead singer seems to be the main focus throughout the video with only her being the one in a separate scene by herself in a blue background, this way you can see she is the main singer of the group.

Main Camera Angles/shot and movements 

• 0.02-looks like a point of view shot leading up to the room from dark
• 0.04-Long shot of the band as means of introduction of perofrming
• 0.05-6-regular cuts
• Cuts seem more frequent
• 0.10-Close up of the main singer
• Close up of guitar.
• 0.54-pan across to another member of band
• There is dolling forward toward the band
• The shaky-ness of the camera seems as if 'it is a hand held camera'.
• 3.23-extream close up

Editing

• The scenes seem more fast forwarded.
• Jump cuts very often
• Camera cutting rate very frequent making it seem like interruptions and disorganization 
• Cutaway shot used when showing close up of the girl member than to one of the other band members playing the guitar.
• 1.35-A zoomed transition than fades into the next scene.
• In this new scene a fast forwarded effect is used to zoom in and out.

Sound

• Non-diegetic sound used in the video is quite fast and you can hear a electric guitar and drums mainly, this is usually a conventional sound linked to rock/punk music.

Brainstorm

This is my brainstorm looking at all the different genre of music. I noted down what sounds and settings you would expect to see or here, as well as if they were performance, narritive or concept based. I have seen that there might be different target audience for each of them this does not always depend on the age but also their intrests and hobbies.

Making a change...

After looking at music from some other genres, me and Sofia have decided that we might change the genre that we are choosing to something more well known to us, becasue we weren't familiar with the genre 'indie' at all and couldn't decide which song would be appropriate. And as we are are going to have a girl group consisting of three or two we have choosen other people who we think potentially would go better with genre's like jazz or soul etc. We know that researching thoroughly into this genre and finding out new information would pick up more marks, but we have decided to do research into most of the other genres such as jazz, pop etc as well as indie in a brainstorm. As we are still deciding, we think the brainstorm will definatly broaden our minds into finding a song that suits the genre we end up selecting, as well as giving us background information.

We are still thinking of picking a genre of music which isn't well known to everyone so were not heading towards something like R&B or POP, but ideally we would like music from a girl group so this will mean researching into previous 'girl groups' to look at there images and how they are potrayed, we would also like a brithish artist as we think it is important to try and match the voice of the artist matched/suits the people we are going to use in our music videos.

A band!

We have decided to use a 'band' of three artists, preferably a 'girl group' . We feel that there is a big market for girl groups in genres such as POP, such as Girls Aloud or the The Pussycat Dolls, but as they have separated  there is now a lot of boy bands such as X Factor runner ups One Direction. I think that making the market bigger in indie music with a girl band will increase the fan base.

One thing about bands which is quite common is the fact that some of them have a 'lead singer' or performer with the other bands dancing or performing with instrument. This shows their musical versatility and how they can attract the audience with their performance. An example would be American girl band group The Pussycat Dolls (below), in the middle you can see that Nichole Scherzinger as the lead singer.

Another example would be The Script (below), this band does consist of a lead vocalist with the other two members playing instruments like the guitar  I think this works well as it shows musical talent and is unconventional to other bands. We are hoping to follow this convention and set out our band members in such way that there is a main vocalist while the other band members play instruments and backing vocals maybe. 

Below are pictures of other British girl and boy bands.

The genre of music...

Me and Sofia have decided to go with 'Indie style music'. We have chosen this genre of music beacsue we feel that it will be different from typically doing 'R&B' or 'POP' music which can be reccognised by some audience who may already have a thought of how the music video might look. On the other hand, if we choose a well known song which already has a music video, we will most defiantly be left with judgemnt and comparison from the the audience as how the 'original' music video look to our A2 one.

Indie style music would be good in particular, not only is it an edgy, hip/rock music, but also becasue we have thought of the people we might use who will suit this genre.

Brief chosen

 After many decisions  me and my partner Sofia Tarik (media student) have chosen the 3rd brief which is a music video promo. We were originally planing on doing the 'movie' brief because we thought we had more hands on experience planing and making it. We ended up choosing the music video brief because me and my partner believe it will be a good way to show our creativity and interpret our ideas together. Along with this brief, the ancillary task that we have chosen, are a website promoting the album and band, and a magazine advertisement  We feel that the website is important when advertising a band or solo artist's album or music as it creates fan base and fans can also be up-to-date with what the artists are promoting so they feel more 'connected'. The magazine advertisement is also a key way to promote artist's because it is shown on a form of advertisement whether that is in a music magazine of any other magazine, therefore people are most likely to look at the general presentation and question if it looks appealing before deciding to buy the CD.

This is my partener's media blog address: http://a2mediacourseowrk.blogspot.co.uk/