Evaluation

For my music video I decided to use the song “Clark Gable” by a little known group, The Postal Service. The bands genre is classed as a mixture between indie-pop and electro-pop which both have certain styles that I wanted to depict in my video. Indie-pop groups generally sing in an upbeat style but with the lyrics focusing on sarcastic portraits of society and love, where Electro-pop groups may also include some dead pan lyrics and have possible modern and science fiction references while still using an upbeat style. It was important to me that my video took elements of both the genres to show how the group had mixed the two in their music.

Goodwin stated that “There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals” and this was my point of focus for my video. I wanted to illustrate the meaning of the song by picking up on one particular line of it and working my video around that concept. The line that struck me as the most important of the song was “I was waiting since birth to find a love that would look and sound like a movie.” I felt this was important in modern society as the media plays such an integral role in shaping the way people think, and often is the case that many films will show “love” to such a high state of perfection that this is what the viewer expects it to be like and anything other than this perfection is not good enough.

My video revolved around a young woman desperately trying to find her perfect match and acting out scenes from romantic films with a puppet of herself and her mystery perfect man. I felt this worked well with both genres as it was using an upbeat song to point out a sarcastic and possibly cynical outlook on life and society. I wanted to use puppets instead of a real man as it shows a certain detachment from the actress and the society around her. We never see anyone else that the song refers to. This is also shown in another video by the same group called “Such Great Heights” which keeps the two main characters on a space station, never mixing with any other person and therefore keeping the music video and the message behind the lyrics as ideas and thoughts that the group have about society rather than a true account of life.

Indie-pop also tends to follow the pace of the song and use cuts on irregular beats or where the songs tempo changes rather than cutting in a way a dance video would on each significant beat. I think I managed to pace my video in a similar way concentrating on where the songs mood changed as opposed to where the beats were. I think with these points in mind I created a successfully accurate piece with regards to the songs genre.

Feedback from my music video was relatively positive. The concept and the relevance of the shots were easily recognisable by the viewers who all understood the narrative and references to modern society. The use of puppets also proved to be successful in its connotations and seemed to provide viewers with some variety in the shot types as opposed to seeing just the young woman throughout.

My feedback also showed that the use of a cat in some scenes was well liked as it showed that the young woman had at least one companion who was always there for her and the shots of her quickly changing outfits and running up and down stairs while the cat simply followed her movements was almost like the cat trying to show her that love isn’t exactly like the movies make out, but can come in many forms and the cat showing her so much attention was one of them.

My feedback showed that no-one could immediately think of a music video that used the same concept as mine or in the same context. Generally if a music video revolves around love of any kind there will be more than one person in the video to depict this, but as mine remained so cut off from the outside world and revolved almost entirely in one small room it was a nice way of getting the point across and the use of puppets was a good aid to this.

In all I think my music video went well, despite thinking that some shots were too long, for example when the romantic comedy DVD’s are being thrown into a pile the shot seems to drag slightly. However I think the use of puppets and the real and grainy looking light and shots worked well with my theme and I hope that I kept the video true to its genres.

Editing

I have now finished editing my music video. I am not overly happy but I have ran out of time to make changes. I am unhappy with a couple of shots that I feel are too long, but there are others which I feel make up for it. To avoid all of my shots being boring and too long I eventually agreed to use some shots from some romantic comedies to matc and be layered over the top. hopefully this will make a slightly more interesting watch but not seem like an advert for the films. Next is to evaluate

Time	Lyric	Image
0.00 – 0.44	Intro	Girl on sofa looking sad –Calendar/ DVD stack – re. “love”
0.45 – 0.57	I was waiting for a cross-town train in the London underground when it struck me (when it struck me)	Jumps up – calendar – “Find love”
0.57 – 1.07	That I’ve been waiting since birth to find a love that would look and sound like a movie	Puppet film set
1.07 – 1.20	So I changed my plans and rented a camera and a van and then I called you (then I called you)	Getting ready at mirror – walks away
1.20 – 1.28	“I need you to pretend that we are in love again” and you agreed to	Faceless pictures – all blurred
1.28 – 1.40	I want so badly to believe that there is truth, that love is real	Sitting by window – clouds rolling by – calendar changing
1.40 – 1.55	And I want life in every word to the extent that its absurd	DVD stack – all “love”
1.55 – 2.07	Break	Walking in –throwing bag down –slouching on sofa
2.08 – 2.20	I greased the lens and framed a shot using a friend as my stand-in (as my stand in)	Puppet boy – pics changing
2.20 – 2.30	The script it called for rain but it was clear that day so we faked it	Puppet umbrella - smiling
2.30 – 2.42	The marker snapped and I yelled “quiet on the set” and then called action (and then called action)	puppets
2.42 – 2.57	I kissed you i n a style Clark Gable would have admired, I thought it classic	Watching TV – Clark Gable kiss – puppet kiss
2.58 – 3.05	I want so badly to believe that there is truth that love is real	Sitting by window – clouds rolling by – calendar changing
3.05 – 3.17	And I want life in every word to the extent that its absurd	Dvd’s thrown to a pile
3.17 – 3.30	I know you’re wise beyond your years but do you ever get the fear	Walking in and out – diff outfits
3.30 – 3.44	That your perfect verse is just a lie you tell yourself to help you get by?	Rubbing lipstick at mirror – looking fed up
3.44 – 4.31	Fast tempo	Various – watching films – throwing puppet set – collecting films in bag – driving
4.31 – 4.48	Medium tempo	Various – walking up to rock with bag
4.48 – 4.52	Fastest tempo	Various – throwing in dvd’s and puppets – slumping on sofa – smiling contently

Presentation

Today I did my presentation and I think it went ok. I don't have to re-do it wich is a good sign but I was very nervous at the time and hopefully I still got my information and points accross.

I am now going to start working on my music video which will be to the song "Clark Gable" by a relatively un-known group called "The Postal Service." I chose this song as I like the subject of its lyrics being about finding a perfect love but having to realise it's never like the media and films portray it.

My Presentation

Presentation

I have discussed with Chris that my presentation will be during Fridays lesson as I want to be fully prepared and my cue cards aren't yet completed. My presentation consists of the following:
The purpose of a music video - creating a star. This includes star vehicles, star power and star image.
Goodwins distinguishing features of a music video - This includes talking about relationships between lyrics, images, genre etc and the video. It is also where I will show my two examples and refer them to goodwins points as I talk about each one. I'm not looking forward to the presentation but hopefully I won't do too badly.
I have also been looking at the song for my music video and have chosen The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights." I have been creating a time line, almot like a paper edit in which I have been writing the times of each line of the song and thinking about what images I want to be showing for each one. I think I have a rough idea of what I want to achieve now and after the presentation is complete I can get on with my storyboarding as long as chris is happy with my idea.

Music Video - boring post

The last date for everything to be handed in is the 28th march. I have contacted a local UK hip hop and drum and bass group I know called genuine competance to see if they are interested in having a video made but I am leaning towards making a concept video rather than one which focuses on a band. I will look at some more concept videos to see if i can get any ideas and take it from there

Creating a Star

Today we discussed how a star is created through or with the help of music videos. The image of a star is defined as how they are perceived by the audience; their fan base, the clothes they wear and their ideology.

A Star Vehicle is generally a tv show, film, advert, other music artist, newspapers, album artists, live performances etc that are used to promote the artist. An example of this is Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's television show "Newlyweds" on MTV. This shows airing happened to coincide with the release of Jesica's new album and the production of Nich Lachey's music video, launching his new career. This meant there were newspaper and website reviews, the television show itself, adverts and other famous people talking about the two and promoting interest in Nick's solo career and the new video which had been shown in production during "Newlyweds."

Star Vehicles can also help artist make the move from one part of the industry to another, or one image to another, for example we looked at how Robbie Williams made the move and the change in image from a boyband with connotations of being manufactured and being over post-produced to being a solo artist who became known for his "bad boy" image involving drugs and women but also beinbg credited as having more talent due to his co-writing of material.

We also looked at Star Power which takes three different forms, Economic power, Artistic Power and Ideological Power.

Economic Power consists of the earning that a star makes through their music, advertising, videos, touring, any lines such as clothing and perfume that they endorse or create. in general, those with more power also have more freedom than others and may be able to expoloit others in society and/or cause some sort of ideological following or dominate the market.

Artistic Power as mentioned before can take place when an artist either becomes successfull enough for their management to give them more control of their image and style and how it appears in the media i.e. endorsements, publicity, music videos etc Someone with a great deal of artistic power in their work is Bjork who has remained in creative control of her career right through from the 80's when she was in the sugarcubes. This has meant she has total control of the interviews she does, the clothes she wears, her style, her videos and all publicity and live performance.

Still to come as we have run out of time....ideology

Chris Cunningham

Today we watched a documentary about Chris Cunningham, a music video director who started out as a junior working in special effects. He has made video's for Aphex Twins, Bjork and Portershead (all of whom i really like.) We also discussed the codes and styles of his work which have strong narratives and are more experimental than many mainstream videos.

The colours of his videos are also quite similar never really using extrmemly bright colours for more than a few seconds creating a darker edge to his work. I really liked Chris's videos and will probably use the one for Bjork or Portershead in my presentation.