Costumes

Our Lyrics Analysed

This is our lyrics analysed, it has just given us a basic idea what we are going to do when the lyrics come in.

Our storyboard for our Music Video

 Our Storyboard 

Above is the story board to our music video "You oughta Know" by Das Racist. We choose to use a few creative ideas to give a good impact on the audience. The ideas we choose were to quite simple shots but how we were going to edit them was how we were going to make it creative. The first couple of shots we choose the Swimming pool jumping and floating in the pool saying the words, also close ups of lips saying the words was also the idea and having lip tattoos on to make it look better. Squash courts were also involved to use to have an birds eye view of three people (Hannah, Jess and Emily) This was to show craziness of different and weird stuff they were doing. For this shot we were going to edit to slow down and fasten and add stutters. There is a forest scene of Hannah rapping the first rap with a group of people with masks on to show how a crazy mind would feel like. There will be long shots and close ups to show on here of hannah and the people around her. The last rap of the song will be of Lauren running up a road rapping this will be filmed from the back of a car which will be in front of Lauren. The final scene is of the three of us in a dark room with a strobe light flashing and we are moving closer to the camera but changing masks to show the craziness never goes away and are in fact still crazy. 

For this we are challenging some of the conventions of our genre; in most videos you see a rapper in an empty room which they are by them selves we are not doing this because we wanted to challenge the genre and be able to use our imagination to create something good. 
The genre conventions we are conforming to are a lot of music videos rapping to the camera, long shots and close up, bright colours. These are the things we will be conforming to. 

9 Shot Analysis

I am analysing the music video for the song 'Me, myself and I' by De La Soul. It is a hip-hop rap song which is very similar to our chosen song and below is a 9 shot analysis showing the editing, mise-en-scene and camerawork used in the video and why.

The first row of photos are screen grabs of the music video showing Camerawork. As you cane see they include two close ups,  one of the artists face and one of an actors head and shoulders. The other is an establishing long shot of the band De La Soul.This shot is used for the audience to come to the realisation of who the artists are and the set of which it is being filmed so we understand the narrative, in this case the video is set in a schiool. All camera angles are used to make the video more engaging, keeping the audience attracted and intersted in the video. 

The second row of photos are to show the mise-en-scene of the video (everything visible withing the frame). The first picture is to show costume. As you can see the actor is wearing big gold chains, and as we've established, through camera work, this costume piece is probably used to represent the actor as cool/rebellious pupil that others are affraid of or look up to. The middle photo on the second row is to illustrate props. The prop they have used is a stereo/radio/boombox which once again can be associated with popular kids, but doesn't have a particular meaning or message in this video. The third picture illustrates the lighting and once again the location. They have used a black room with black floors, and a spotlight, which is keeps us as an audience engaged as there has been a change in both lighting and set.

I have used the final row to illustrate editing. Credits are placed into the bottom of the screen at the begining of the song, saying the name of the song and the artist, which shows me, someone who's making a video, to prehaps consider adding titles/credits. The other two photos just show lyrics flashing up on the screen which would have only been possible to create within the editing process.

Textual Analysis

Textual Analysis

Good Time

By Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen

The music video I am analysing is Good time by Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen. These are two different artists who have gained number ones in their careers, Owl city with Fireflies and Carly Rae Jepsen with Call Me Maybe. The song Good Time was written by Adam Young from Owl City and Carly was asked to feature in it. This song is classed under the Genre Dance-pop and Synthpop; also from hearing the song and seeing the music video it would be targeted for a young adult audience. From watching the music video I would say it was a narrative type, because it is telling a story about having a good time.

The mise-en-scene in this video are; The four main locations are outside the house, in the car, at a wooden cabin, in a lake and in the forest, which has the fields and high grasses.  These locations play a big part in the song because it is showing how they are having a good time and on a camping trip. The characters are all in basic clothing that would be worn on a summer’s day, e.g shorts, strappy shorts. Also some characters are in Wellington boots.  The music video has including natural lighting and in the forest the light from the camp fire has been the main source which means some things aren’t as easy to see as they were earlier in the music video.

The music video starts of with a long shot of Carly leaning onto the front of her Fiat 500 waiting for her friends to come outside, that’s when it turns into a medium shot of hugs and close ups of smiles and laughter.  A long shot is used again to show them getting into the car and packing rucksacks and luggage into the boot which tells the audience they are going on some sort of road trip/holiday.  Once the car has moved away and they are driving, they have used a tracker movement to track the car, which is driving through the city. In this scene they also use a two shot, which is positioned outside the car looking into the front of the car where Carly is singing. It then cuts away to a male singer who is Adam Young from Owl City; he is in his car with his friends heading through a forest. The director has used a low angle shot looking up into sky showing the trees going past them, which also establishes where they are driving. During the first chorus it cuts back and forth between the two artists driving and singing in their different places. During these cuts there are low angles used in a part of Carly’s scene, which is also an establishing shot because it is positioned low looking up at the car and showing they are in the city.

When the scene changes and Carly has arrived at a wooden hut sitting around with her friends, medium shots are used to show her singing. When the others have arrived long shots are used to show the car pulling up and it changes to medium shots to show hugging and friendly greetings. During the greetings there is Close up on Carlys face singing which starts of slightly unfocused and then changes to fully focused as it quickly zooms out a little bit.  The two characters then move onto the front of the car and a low angle is used which is looking up at Adam singing and Carly sitting slightly behind him. Throughout this scene the other shots used are close ups when it cuts to Carly singing ‘whoa’ and medium shots of the friends dancing around, There is also a two shot of them when the Slush machine breaks.

The video then moves into a forest. Behind and low angle shots are used to show the walking into the forest with there tents and camping stuff. There is little clips of different things happening at the start of this part, these are of people running through the forest with a huge fake butterfly and they have used a medium shot for that and also there are people sitting in high grass making daisy chains and medium shots, close up and extreme close ups have been used. Plus during these parts it cuts to Carly and Adam singing in two different places; very similar shots and angles have been used in this part which are close ups, medium and low angles and the artists are looking and singing into the cameras. In the scene with Carly singing the camera follows her running and dancing through the forest and open field.  In one of the shots of people running into a lake it has been slowed down.

The end scene of the music video is of all the friends dancing around the campfire and the camera work switches to close ups, medium and long shots. High angles are used to show the hands pumping the air. They have also used focus and unfocusing in this scene, which focuses on faces who are laughing and also the singers when they sing. The music ends with a long and wide shot of the whole crowd dancing in the forest and fades to black.

All of these camera shots help the music video show it is a narrative because it is telling a story of having a good time. The way they dance show that the genre is pop and upbeat and you can dance to it by the way the characters move and sing in this video.

In this music video I can only notice one of Goodwin’s theory, is also established, for example Relationship between Lyrics and Visuals. This is very easy to notice because the song is about having a good time and the whole music video is of the two set of characters having a good time with there friends and then meeting new friends and always having a good time.

In conclusion of my textual analysis I have discovered it doesn’t fully have a story line but is trying to show the audience they are having a good time through the camera shots such as close up were used a lot to show the happy emotions on there faces. Also the locations are helping with the message they want to give out which is having a good time.

Textual Analysis 1 - Beez in the Trap

Textual Analysis

For my textual analysis I have decided to analyse Beez in the Trap by Nicki Minaj, featuring the rap artist 2 Chainz. The music video for this song is directed by Benny Boom, who directs videos for hip-hop, rap and alternative music videos for artists including Nicki Minaj, 50 Cent, T-Pain, Pussy Cat Dolls and many more.

Beez in the Trap is an electro-hop-rap song including Nicki Minaj singing/rapping and an interlude of 2 Chainz’ featured rap. This genre (including the genre of our chosen song: alternative hip hop rap), has many characteristics, that are present in the majority of this video. Throughout the video, Boom has used continuity and included lots of genre characteristics. In fact there is a perfect example of a genre characteristic within the first 5 seconds of the music video: this being the very fast short shot duration of two or more clips, and in this case the clips are of Nicki Minaj, credits of the artist’s names, and strobe lights in a night club. This creates the mood for the song and catches the interest of its intended target audience. Flickering of sets and scenes is very popular in hip-hop videos as the target audience tends to be young adults and teenagers of whom bright colours, flashing lights and scenes set in a night club would largely appeal to.

This music video is not centred around lyrics and visuals being linked and in sync, but there are a few examples of some relationships between the two: One would be Nicki showing her rings and chains, that say ‘Beez in the trap’ on them, up to the camera whilst the lyrics that are being said are in fact Beez in the Trap. Also, at 1 minute 55 seconds into the video, 2 Chainz raps about money, and as he says “…money, thousands” the editing flickers from his rap to an actor holding a fan of money. The money, being a prop, is amplified by the lyrics which portrays the meaning of the song, trapped in money. This message of the song can be explained by a quote from a Nicki Minaj interview about the song itself: “…I am always in the trap. Now the trap, ladies and gentlemen, relates to anywhere where you get your money.”

In terms of the relationship between the music and visuals, there are few points to illustrate. One would be the quick cuts within the music video that actually goes in perfect time with the beat of the song. When the beat of the song is less protrusive, and the drum or beat is deeper and sunken, the clips in the music video are edited to be in slow motion. Although the music never slows down, this slow motion seems to fit the son g perfectly and helps the video become very attractive towards the audience. Because the genre of the song, there is no instrumental solo, nor is there a change in pace, so as far as these factors are concerned, there are no visuals to illustrate them as they don’t exist!

Through research on the internet, I came to the realisation that Nicki doesn’t have any motifs, like a particular font on her album covers or a logo or anything like that. The one thing that she is known for however is her wacky makeup design and her enormous variety of hair colour changes, which can be seen throughout the whole of Beez in the Trap. One other characteristic that can a very large amount of times throughout, is close ups of Minaj’s and 2 Chainz’ faces. This relates back to genre characteristics as this type of camera angle is very popular in rap-hop videos.

Notions of looking is a good area for me to analyse in this video, although there is no references to ‘looking’ such as cameras within the mise-en-scene, or telescopes and binoculars, there is plenty of scenes where the artist is on sexual display. Throughout the song Nicki and other actresses in the video are depicted as being very revealing and sexual. This can be seen through both the costume used in the video, and the dancing in the all dance scenes. I believe that these features have been chosen because of Nicki Minaj’s image: a young woman, often showing flesh and being revealing in a lot of her videos. On the other hand, there is one area that isn’t present in this video, and that is intertextual reference. Intertextual reference is when a music video contains references to other music videos, motifs of clips/parodies from clips in other television programmes and films.

One last area to analyse is what type the music video is. There are three types to choose from: narrative (a video following a story line), concept based (a message behind the song), or a performance based video (artists performing the song in the video). I can straight away rule out the narrative type, as there is no story line within the visuals. A performance based video largely contains clips of the artists performing the song, and only short clips of cut-aways showing other things. But Beez in the trap just has the occasional lip-syncing, so I can go as far to say that the video is relatively performance based, but not completely. There is also a concept/message behind the video, which is the fact that Nicki has made her fame, earned her fame, and nobody can tell her otherwise. She also sings about the fact that she is trapped in places of money i.e. she has lots of it!

To conclude, it is possible to call this video concept and performance based, including a variety of genre characteristics, commonly used by rap-hop songs. Although the video doesn’t have any intertextual references, through all its characteristics, it is incredibly eye catching and appealing to its’ target audience.

Our Pitch Presentation

Script

This is our script for our media Presentation

 Lauren-Hello guys, for our music video we have chosen the song ‘Oughta Know’ by Das Racist. It is an alternative, hip-hop, Rap song.

Hannah- we chose this song because it’s up beat with a hint of quirkiness. We didn’t want to choose a slow song because we prefer the idea of creating a concept based video which stereotypically goes with fast tempo songs.

Jess to help us come up with ideas for our music video we have looked at different conventions of other music videos. That is part of the same genre.

Lauren- to start with we looked at ‘Beez in the trap’ by Nicki Minaj. To start with we found that her video confirms to a lot of conventions of hip-hop and rap. Some of these include, bright colours, long establishing shots, often in slow motion, outrageous outfits and close-ups, focusing on jewellery and confetti on this video in particular.

Hannah- another convention that the ‘Beez in the trap’ video conforms to is the location’. One location was a club, including flashing lights and people dancing- when the rapping scene starts the scene changes to a dark room, with nothing on the walls, just a plain room with the artist and the feature rapper.

Jess-after working out ideas for our video, we can tell both ‘You Oughta Know’ and ‘Beez in the trap’ will be linked as they are both conceptual based.

Lauren- we asked our self what the meaning behind her video was and figured out ‘beez in the trap’ meant through her career and gaining her lifestyle she has received enough popularity and fortune to be able to do what she wants. This music video explains to the audience this is how she feels.

Hannah- ‘a hundred mothafuckers can’t tell me nothing’ also to show the meaning because she believes no one can’t tell her to do anything. 

Jess- in this video Nicki is represented in different ways. She does have a normal trend of trying to look like a Barbie, by her make-up and her hair colours. She uses her bottom and boobs a lot so she is shown in a sexual revealing way also by jewellery as a girl gangster.

Lauren- when looking at the relationship between lyrics and visuals we realised when Nickis song ‘Beez in the Trap’ she was sitting in a trap of fencing wire.

Hannah- Also when she sings it, she is showing money to show what she means which is ‘She has enough money, she can do anything she wants’. Lastly she pushes her jewellery to the camera which says ‘Beez Trap’.

Lauren- for our music video we are NOT GOING TO SOUNTHAMTON (HAHAHAHHA) we have however decided on a few different locations.

Hannah- one of them is montom leisure centre, we are going to use the squash courts and the swimming pool after closing time for further filming, another location would be a forest and also st.leonards hill.

Jess- we have also decided on some of the props that will be included these are: forest animal masks, fog machines, smoke bombs, dining table, plates etc, powder paints and strobes.

Lauren- we are going to base our video around the most common lyrics in the song which is in the chorus ‘you should never argue with a crazy mind’. This word makes us think of conceptual, so we have decided on conceptual based for our video, with the main idea of making the video odd, crazy and random.

Hannah- we also worked out that our video wouldn’t be narrative or performance based after mind mapping all of our ideas.

Jess- the genre conventions that we will confirm to are the close ups and long shorts, different locations, different bright colours and artist rapping to the camera. For casting we have got approvals from some of our friends which are 17 years old, saying they will be small parts in our video. But as for the rest of our cast it is just going to be us three.

Lauren- we haven’t decided in all of the effects yet but some of the ones we will be doing are:

Hannah- quickly flickering between two moving clips or one moving and one still. To get a good idea of this one, Nicki Minaj uses this effect in ‘stupid hoe’.

Jess- we will also be using split screening. This will involve three or more clips being played at the same time, some of the ideas we have are using our mouths singing the chorus’s and miss matching our faces and joining them together. We have also decided to use text in our music video to make the visuals more interesting.

Lauren- lastly another effect is using defocusing and focusing on faces, which is shown here (point) all of these effects we will be done using the video camera and also using my sisters HD camera to catch the detail of the splash when we use the swimming pool. It is also will be done using final cut pro.

Hannah- we do have a few ideas for our music video and these are: to have two or more people running and jumping into the swimming pool but before the song drops we will make the clip jolt to the rhythm of the song. When the song drops the people will then do slow motion in to the water.

Jess- our next idea is to use a forest, which will play parallel to the rapping part, we will put a long dinning table, set with food and plates on it and place it in the middle of this forest. People will be sat around wearing animal masks and the rapping will start with the person at the end. This scene will also include smoke bombs and paint.

Lauren- the last idea for the rapping scenes is to have some running along a road and being filmed by someone who will be sitting in the back of a car. With this idea we are going to try and reverse and fast forward the background.

Hanah- this music video will be trying to represent having a crazy mind to go with what it is saying in the song. Thank you guys for watching

THE END!

PowerPoint Presentation

What the class thought of our Presention

Positives

·         Our analysing Nicki Minaj’s videos was excellent

·         Good analysing other video

·         We have a good set of locations

Negatives

·         Need to check if we are allowed to set of smoke bombs

·         Need to add in Representation

·         We also need to figure out what the lyrics are trying to say and how we are going to portray this.

In regards to our feedback we have learned that our class thinks that we are going to have difficulty filming this as there is a lot to be filmed, and we only have one camera. So we got together and discussed it and we have decided that we are going to do test shots and practise editing it as that is what we feel we are going to struggle at.

 By doing this PowerPoint it has given us and the class a clearer insight on what our final music video is going to look like and if we come to any trouble in filming we have thought of other ways of in which we can change it.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory - Explanation and Example

Below are two tables. The first is an explanation of the points that make up Goodwin's theory. The other table is applying the theory to an example music video: Single Ladies by Beyonce.

Types of music videos

The three different types of music videos are Narrative, Performance and Concept. This worksheet shows different music videos that we discovered were these types .

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

These two worksheets are all about Andrew Goodwin's theory. One sheet is finding the meanings for all the different areas and the other is applying his theories to a music video of my choice, which is We are never ever getting back together by Taylor Swift.

Genre Conventions

 When looking into music videos and starting my genre analysis of two music videos I decided to analysis Pop music videos. The first music video I looked at was Jessie J's Nobody's Perfect.

Her music video for this song has a lot of the conventions of pop music videos; but Even though her video opens up not looking like a pop video because it looks quite spooky as it shows a old scary house with speaking over saying "if you look closely, the eye picks up more than you think. A simple blur becomes something. a light becomes a shape and a world becomes colourful" This makes the audience think its not until the words are spoken and the scene changes to inside the house and it shows it is full of colour just like most pop videos. Once the speaking has stopped, the song starts and the scene opens in a dining room which is full with people all dressed in bright colours and random outfits. Even though a convention of a pop music video is normally cheery and the directors use close ups to show the upbeat emotions, this music video is quite upbeat but not cheerful. This music video does use close ups but Jessie j does not show happy emotions. Also this song is called Nobody's Perfect so when the camera uses close ups and extreme close ups it shows that being not perfect is quite emotional and you can see on her face. One of the biggest conventions of this music video which is conformed is the dancing, Jessie dances around the different rooms she is in throughout her whole video. 

The Second music video I looked at was Katy Perry's Wide Awake, this video was a lot like Nobodys perfect because it had a dark side to it and it very gloomy. This pop video starts of with Katy Perry filming her old song california girls and talking to the director at the start and then moving into her dressing room, while she is sitting in front of the mirror it changes to a forest scene. This change in scene is different to the conventions of a pp music video because it starts as happy and colorful to moody and dark which is opposite to what Jessie J's song. The similarities between these two videos are they use a lot of close ups to show the emotions, normally the close ups show the happy emotions but in these music videos the artists look quite sad. Also both these music videos show a lot of anger, by smashing through walls and blowing up things in Nobody's Perfect. 


The different outfits these music videos shows the audience emotions of the artists. In nobody's Perfect it starts with jessie at a table with many guest at a feast, but they are all in brightly colored outfits to show there all different and none of them are perfect and through out the different scenes of this music video she has different outfits to go with what she is saying for example; When she is singing about time she is dressed covered in clocks. Also when she is singing about hurting she is covered in black paint. In Wide Awake the clothes also show different emotions, when the scene changes to show Katy in the Labyrinth she is dressed in a black and purple dress and cape and this shows her emotions arent upbeat but throughout the music video her outfits do change slightly to a gold dress and by the end when she is out of the Labyrinth and in the upbeat maze she is a long flowery gown. 
Using different outfits to fit the moods of the song and feelings of the artist helps the audience understand better too. 

This music video is based around the idea of fairytales; Such as poison Strawberry, curious cat, prince charming and Prince charming. The video explores the idea of breaking free from the lies of the fairytale's. Three quarters of this video it is a dark, gloomy and miserable in a giant labyrinth; but they change to match the conventions of a pop video by using bright colors at the end when she has exited the labyrinth and into an open maze which is full off flowers and up beat things. This video is different in the way it finishes the way it starts by using her previous songs in different ways; to start with she is filming the end of her music video for California Girls and the ending of the film is her back in her dressing room in a different outfit and then being risen onto a concert stage about to start singing her song Teenage Dream. 

Both these videos have a lot of the conventions you would see in a pop music video but the colors and emotions in these are different because the meanings behind these songs aren't so upbeat it shows within the music video, with the dark and mysterious elements but throughout the song it begins to show the conventions with the colors by bringing out happy parts. 
The conventions of a pop music video you do see in both of these music videos, are the shots such as close ups and extreme close ups to show the different emotions they have and to focus on the singers. Also they are both aimed at teenage audience, with the locations and story lines. 

Our Final Song Lyrics

You Oughta Know -Das Racist 
(high-piched voice)

You should never argue with a crazy mi- mi- mi- mi- mind
You oughta know by now
You should never argue with a crazy mi- mi- mi- mi- mind
Is that all you get for your money? 

(Kool A.D.) 

You should never argue with a la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
You oughta know by now
You should never argue with a crazy ma-ma-ma-ma-ma
You oughta know la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
You should never argue with a crazy muh-muh-muh-muh-muh-ma
You ought know by now
You should never argue with a bluh-bluh-bluh-bluh-bluh
Is that all you get for your money? 

OK, OK

Chasin' (?) people, like what Twitter get
Sick of arguing with white dudes on the Internet
When I'm gassed on my own black past, like how a wigger get
I like to slow it down with a marijuana cigarette
Occasionally with powders in it 
Yes, talcum fresh
Yeah, good hair, you could say I'm Malcolm-esque
Like the tresses like the dresses flowing sexy
Spin-off, blowup, Joanie and Chechny
Yeah, rock marked into this Georgia Dome
Caucasian boys creamed
Topical like cortisone
Leave a message on my phone 
I'm only sort of home
The rest of me is sort of in the zone where the Dodos roam
They're all up on the tube no (?) stoned
Hacksaw, slack-jawed, like they short a chromosome
Leave your boy alone like Michael Latoya Holmes
A rich interior world's a joy to own, 'cause 

You should never argue with a boo-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
You oughta know by now
You should never argue with a crazy muh-muh-ma-ma-ma-ma
Etc, etc.

Go in, OK

(Heems)

I get around like a vinyl
All sales final, Lionel Richie
I'm so gangsta prissy
Chicks don't wanna fuck with me
Yet me people seem to let me
Get away with wildin' like I won an Emmy
Grammy, Tony, Oscar, rasta impostors
Mangos, Trinidad attorneys 
Burning S.N.S. Herning, learning cultures
Culture vultures' sculptures, nature nurture
Public freak-outs, if you got a problem, find me, speak out, speak out
Get in the middle of Little Italy Samburg
Dosa, told ya, funny blowing dolga
No more smoking doja
You should know now
Know how I do what I do
I drink, I think, I chew two blues, one thing

You should ba-ba-ba-ba-be-ba, be-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-be-ba
You should ba-ba-ba-ba-be-ba
You should ba-ba-ba-ba-be-ba, buddie-ba-ba-ba, biddie-ba-ba-ba
Etc., etc.
Read more at http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858850787/#QAhHUgCMGYHEchSh.99

Goodwin's Theory of Gwen Stefani- Cool

This is a Narrative base video of two people together and the main male character moves on and the main female character (Gwen Stefani) is fine with it.

Relationship between lyrics and Visuals.

Throughout the song Gwen Stefani is singing about how she had a relationship with the main male character, they were together when they were younger. He now has moved on to someone else however she (Gwen) is ‘cool’ with it now. Throughout the video it shows this with the three characters involved. An example of this is she sings the lyrics ‘after all that we have been through, I know were cool.’ It then shows her with him and his new girlfriend all laughing and enjoying their afternoon.

Relationship between music and visuals.

The music is parallel to the visuals in the video. When the music is slowed down the pace of the video is also slowed down. This is the done when its more up-beat the video speeds up and uses more cuts to flash through different scenes between the three characters to show the relationship between them all.

Intertextual Reference

None was involved in this video.

Notion of looking

By looking in to Gwen Stefani’s other videos it is obvious that her record label want to look ‘sexy and hot’. You can tell this is true by looking at her other videos and in more videos she is wearing little amount of clothing and is wearing a lot of make up in her videos. Such as her Red lipstick in ‘Hollaback Girl’ and her bright pink lipstick and huge eyelashes in ‘The Sweet Escape.’


Genre Characteristics

In ‘Cool by Gwen Stefani’ the video challenges the stereotype for Pop Videos. As they normally involve bright colours, lots of girls and boys dancing about normally at a party, drinking or at club. However as for this video she has made it very sophisticated being set in a modern expensive home with them all being well groomed with expensive clothing and jewelry.

The video does confirm with use of camera work and techniques. As there is a lot of close-up shot used to show their body language. Close up shots are mostly used in pop videos because it is easier to see there emotions.

Codes and Conventions

In this blog I will compare two music videos within the same genre of music, looking at their codes and conventions and what genre charactersitics they share.

The genre that I have chosen to analyse is Electro-Pop. I researched artists that are often associated with Electro pop and two artists often appearing in my research are Nicki Minaj and LMFAO. I therefore I picked a music video from each artist to understand codes and conventions often being associated with this chosen genre.

For LMFAO I chose the song 'sexy and i know it' and for Nicki Minaj I chose 'stupid hoe.'

Below are the genre characteristics that are part of the codes and conventions of electro-pop, and screen grabs to illustrate them from the two chosen music videos.

Camera Shots:
In most electro pop music videos, their are numerous close ups of actors faces and the artists faces, this can be seen in the pictures below:

On the left is a close up of Nicki Minaj and the right is a close up of an actor in the LMFAO video. Close ups are often used to show the emotion of the artist, putting across the meaning of the song, This is true for electro-pop videos, however humorous, positive or silly these emotions or facial expressions are.

Another camera shot often found in electro pop videos is long establishing shots showing were the video is taking place (setting): This genre usually contains bold rooms or bright outdoor settings and as you can see on the left, Nicki Minaj uses a grand room for women to dance in, and LMFAO, on the right uses a bright street with colourful markets etc. for a large majority of the song. To link back to the use of camera shots, I have been able to tell where these music videos have taken place because of the establishing shots, often used in music videos.

Editing:

 Bold editing is very popular for electro-pop music videos and there is often eye-catching edits throughout most of each video. Some editing is used to tell or remind the audience of who the artist is, like a last minute way of advertising the song/artist. This is by adding in text to the music video which can be seen on the left in Nicki Minaj's Stupid Hoe video. To make these videos even more exciting, video editors and directors will sometimes use a split screen where two clips can be shown at once, taking up half of the screen each, or perhaps less if there is more than two clips. This can be illustrated by the screen grab of Sexy and i know it on the right. Other editing involved in both these videos and many more electro-pop music is flickering between two clips and also the slowing down of clips which unfortunately cannot be shown using screen grabs but the two videos are at the bottom of this post to show this use of editing. One more example of editing would be the clour swaping/correction of a clip. For example, in stupid hoe, nicki minaj' lips change colour according to the background changing, which happens more than 10 times at the beginning of the video. Colour correction is very popular in this genre of music as directors/editiors of each video get the oppertunity to make it even brighter and more eye-catching.

 

Mise-en-scene:
Props:

Props are often quite random in electro-pop music videos. As you can see by both pictures, neither props have anything to do with the lyrics (there is no link between lyrics and visuals in terms of props). Nicki uses a skipping rope, and LMFAO use a robot head made of card. Although these props are somewhat irrelevant, the audience is attracted to the objects making the video more interesting to watch. This is true in the case of almost all elctro-pop videos: props are often used, either as random objects, or to help illustrate a lyric/line in the song.

Lighting:

Lighting in electro-pop videos can be articial or natural, or sometimes both. Natural lighting is almost always if the video is being shot outside and therefore the daylight is used. But is a scene is inside, the light will be artificial and the brightness will depend on the effect the director is looking for in his video. But the scenes inside a room/studio may not always be your typical spotlight or brightness focusing on the artist/ character. As you can see on the left, sometimes the atrist will be visible only as a silhouette.

Setting:

Setting varies widely throughout all videos in this chosen genre. For example, a foorest, room, beach, field, pool or infront of a green screen to create any effect a director wants. On the left is Nicki Minaj balancing on a stand against a bold, block, blue background. These bold, block coloured backgrounds are very often seen in electro-pop music videos. To illustrate and outdoor setting is the picture on the right, which is part of LMFAO's video - a street running along side a beach which is visible later on the video.

This post is to help illustrate some of the codes and conventions in the electro-pop videos, and as you can see, both videos use a large amount of props and editing. They also share the common use of bright colours and settings. It is clear that within this genre of music, videos are eye-catching, sometimes quite random, and as shown above, share alot of things in common including their genre characteristics.