Narrative Theory

Narrative theory is how a film or story relates to each other, in the film Romeo and Juliette the theme was that there were rivalling families who are meant to hate each other but the two children fall in love. In Frozen the new Disney film, there is the point that Ana thinks that Hans is a hero, but it turns out he is a villain in the end. You have Olaf who is the magical snowman who risks his life to make sure that Ana doesn't freeze and die. The trolls are linked to the princess from when she needed there help from when she was younger. 

Binary opposites are usually used in films to help the plots, they are also used in music videos as part of a narrative to reinforce song lyrics. 

Levi Strauss - Binary Oppositions

The above picture shows some class work that we did on Binary Oppositions. The idea is that you can base a narrative around things that are opposites. The examples i found above are that in Romeo and Juliet Love and Hate are two large opposites that create the narrative and in World War Z two of the major themes are death and life. 

Propp - Seven Spheres of Action 

Propp came up with the idea that in plays and literature that you would have 7 different character types. A clear example of this is from the film Frozen where they have used 7 different main characters:

Hans (False Hero & Villain), Rock Trolls (dispatcher), Olaf (Helper), Kristoff (Hero), Elsa (Princess), Ana (Princess), Sven (Donor for providing aid to the hero). 

Tzvetan Todorov - 5 stages of action 

At the beginning of Parent Trap the stat of equilibrium is that the twins are living separately with individual parents. The disruption to that is when they meet at camp. The state of disruption is when the twins try to get their parents back together. The resolution is when they come up with the holiday so they can get the parents back together. The new equilibrium is them all living together as one big family. 

Artist Style and Image

For my final music video, I chose to do the video of "Survival - Eminem". With this I am now going to discuss Eminems Style and how it relates to his public image.

Eminem is an American rapper, record producer and Actor known as one of the most controversial and best selling acts of the 21st century. Eminem has had 8 number ones in over 20 different countries.

When following Eminem's music video "Survival" you can see that with what he wears is what i would associate a builder to wear on a building site which is baggy black trousers with pockets all down the sides and then a black top/hoodie with a tag necklace on.

With Eminem everyone knows who he is so he doesn't need to dress outrageously in his videos or make the surroundings of the video outrageous as he has made it in the industry and he has a lot of dedicated fans.

In this video "Survival", Eminem uses a lot of hand gestures which is very much to this day related to rap music. The gestures in rap music often mean something so sometimes you can relate the gestures in a meaning.

In Eminems other videos you can see that his outfit choice is very basic and he doesn't wear outrageously bright and loud colours he tends to just stick to neutral colours.

Purpose of a Music Video

Promotional- The purpose of the music video is to promote the video so that people will buy the song, the video will cause a reaction with the audience and people will start talking about it remember the song and people will start to buy it. The promotion of the song and video will be done by not only word of mouth but also by certain channels such as MTV where they show new videos 'future hits'. The music videos give a better understanding of the song to the audience as you often by watching the video understand the meaning of the video more than you did before. The artist has a picture that the song is sold with so you often find that the video is related to and when the customer buys the song you find that the song will be recognised by the picture or the video more than the artists name. The overall purpose of all of these points above is so the artist can promote the record company so that is how they make their money.
Promoting an artist is also a big part of the promotion of songs and music videos as the artist needs to be known for them to make money themselves. If I was to use Psy as an example who wrote the song Gangnam Style, he posted his first video and got 1Million views on YouTube, he then went on to winning the MTV Europe Music Awards. For Psy his fame was down to the YouTube viewers and the public, if nobody watched the video he wouldn't be where he is now. With his fame it lead to possible collaborations with people like Justin Bieber.  In the Gangnam video Psy promotes himself by wearing bright colours and using distinctive different outfits so you know clearly which one is him, in the video Psy also surrounded himself in a lot of girls and the men characters were even females dressed up as men. The dance is the most recognised bit of the whole video as after the video was released that was the most remembered bit of the  video, if you were to ever see the dance being showed there you would know what song the dance is from. The places that Psy visited in the video is so many random places and is not just based in one place.

Extension of Income- Music videos can help to promote an artist even a long time after releasing the song or album has been released, some artists are recognised years later because of how memorable there music video was. For example a few years ago Ant and Dec on their TV show as a joke performed there song that they had released 10years ago. After performing it on there show they made it to number one by the next week and got over half a million views on there song so many years later after performing. This has happened to other artists but can sometimes make more money. Even Michael Jackson who passed away about 5years ago he still makes money with his songs which shows examples that they may be gone out of the public eye or not here any more but there music video will still be recognised in the public eye which makes people still recognise the song. In the Pj and Duncan video they used bright colours for both of them so that you could distinguish which one was which, the video was very rap based which showed that they were trying to be serious with all the hand gestures but it was a fun video that people remember. When they re-performed it on their TV show they then again were wearing colourful baggy clothes but you could tell my the lack of hand gestures that they were less serious than when they originally performed it. The dance from "Lets get ready to rumble" is also a very recognised dance.












Extension of Outlets - In the past media videos would be shown on TV including chart shows and music channels such as MTV. Labels work together to with MTV to make sure the music videos get played on the channel to increase sales of the song, this is only for certain artists and genres. You find that some channels can't always air the music video until a certain time as they are not appropriate, but you will often find that they can't be shown at all because the video is just not acceptable at all.

Synergy - This is where different types of media work together, this can relate with a music artist releasing a new song and in their music video putting clips from a recent movie in, but also the movie using this artists song, this promotes the artists song in the film and the film in the artists music video. I am going to use Christina Perry for my example, her song "one thousand years" was used in the twilight film and in her music video she had clips of the movie in there, Christina Perry's video theme was so it would blend into the Twighlight theme of the dark skies and the secrecy of the area. Christina in the video wore a black feathery dress so it was plain and not to over the top. In the music video the clips are from during the day fading into her clips which are in the evening to show that its twilight.

Product placement is also a way for the record company and artist to generate income as the major label artists will certainly have product placement in their videos. Lady Gaga's telephone video had numerous product placements including diet coke, virgin mobile and plenty of fish dating site. This was not the first time that Lady Gaga's used product placement in her videos, she also used a various amount in her bad romance video.


Producers Strategies - VEVO have a partnership with Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group. They host music videos on YouTube and use adverts at the start of each video to produce revenue. this is good for music companies as it allows them to regulate the online distribution of their music videos and make money from it. VEVO also have applications on many devices e.g. iPad. This allows many more people to access the content.
Producers strategies have a big impact from YouTube views. In December 2012 record labels were stripped of 2billion video views. YouTube wants to combat 'black hat' view count-building techniques. this is when hackers artificially guid up the number of views or likes on a YouTube video - enabling them to make clips more popular than they really are and increase exposure on the site. The number of views are regarded as an unofficial world popular music chart.

Techniques Video

 In our video we have tried to portray as many techniques that we could throughout it. We used the single camera technique as we felt this was the best way to resemble the video.

With this shot we were shooting from a distance so we wanted the person to be off focus in the background so you could take in the surroundings of where we were shooting. This was the closest we could get to resembling the music video. This was the best shot I felt of the music video as it really had a lot of concentration and a cold effect to it because it was so distant.

 With this shot I wanted to make sure I used the rule of thirds technique. The rule of thirds splits up the screen in to nine squares and is used to place objects and the landscape so that the top line is the is the horizon line. You can also call this shot the 'looking room' as it gives you space to look around as well as the main thing.  By doing this you get to see the surroundings and because there is not a lot of colour in this shot you can see Alice more distinctly and she stands out a lot more showing her facial expression. At the end of this shot I then panned out across the field so that you can see that there isn't anything there which adds more of a dramatic effect.

Here I used a zooming technique where I zoomed in on Alice's face so that I could show emotion as I feel the zooming in would make it more dramatic while looking at her face. Alice isn't looking in the camera which shows that you don't know what she's looking at but you feel connected to know.

Music Video Styles

OK GO- Here It Goes Again - In Depth Artist Case Study

OK GO

In the video 'Here it goes again' they use single camera shots as it is shot all in one place.
The video is all very straight forward but would have needed a lot of rehearsal time in order to pull the routine off.
The lighting is quite bright as it is in a light coloured room.
The cost of this production would be quite low as they wouldn't have to pay for much, they could rent the tredmills in order to keep the cost down and they would only need one camera.
The only thing that could be a problem is because of the amount of takes they would probably have to take so it could be predictable on how long the filming could take, they could film it once and it could be perfect OR they could film it 200 times before getting the perfect scene as it wont be done in takes it would be one long routine.
















In OK GO music video's they tend to always use a single shot in stead of multiple cameras this is easier in some ways for the production team as it makes it one less thing to worry about, they also need to work out the lighting so by using one camera you only need one camera man that also helps to lower the price of the music video.

OK GO tend to be quite an original group with most of their videos as they tend to do quite low cost videos but make them to be something that not everyone has seen before and something that people will remember in the future. In the "Here it goes again" video they did a routine on the treadmill and the video was so low-cost they couldn't stop shooting it had to be one whole good run to make sure they got the best shots, they tended to use long or single shot takes, this restores a sense of wonder to the musical number by letting the performers humanity shine through and allowing them to do what they do best with a minimum of filming interruptions. In this video they used single camera shot. In most of their videos they have made them to be so original that people talk about it and has increased their YouTube views after four years of being released it received 50million views. The reason they are well known is for their quirky and elaborate music videos.

Emotional Response

Jar Of Hearts

Mise-en-scene is used in a lot of different ways in the Jar of Hearts music video, Dancing in an aggressive and passionate way was used to show that the video was about love and heartbreak. The camera uses a lot of close ups to convey the emotion of how she feels. The cold filtering of the piece is also to show the emotion that she is feeling towards what is going on. When editing they slowed it all down so that you could see every gesture made to convey the emotion more, when Christina Perry would mention "Jar of Hearts" a jar would appear in her hands with a black heart inside and you can see the deep emotion. The lyrics "Cold" and "Ice" link with the cold theme of the song and lyrics. In this song there is a narrative theme to the song and has elements of a story throughout.

Big Girls Don't Cry - Fergie

It's set in the garage for where she is most emotional about her break up and when she goes outside it is really dusty and musky which shows that maybe the relationships gone on for too long and she wants it to be over, The lighting was all very cloudy which shows she couldn't see how much further the relationship was going. She wears casual clothes that are bright which is different to "Jar of Hearts" where her outfits were plain and dirty. Fergie also has a brightly coloured car which shows that she isn't heartbroken but she is happy about her choice. The camera shots are long shots to show distance and not being involved in the situation that she is facing. There are flashbacks of her reminiscing on the good times of her relationship. In the lyrics she says that her relationship was a playground romance which shows that she didn't think it was serious relationship.


The One That Got Away


Starts with a present shot before fading to a past memory. The present shots are all very white and plain showing that their is not much left after what has happened in the past as the modern room is very plain and empty.
In the past shots their are very full sets with things going on even though it is all very dark showing that the past was dark but from that her present life is very empty.
there are close ups for emotion in the shots and the zooming is very slow for the emotion to come across.
Mainly facial shots to show the emotion in the faces so you can see how they were living to how she is living now.
there is slow fading to the next shot to show that they are the same people just a few years later. Split screen is used for an intensity of the piece and to show the difference and how what happened in the past has effected her. The lyrics show that it is a love story that went wrong with one argument, the lyrics are heart warming and emotional.

Research - Diane Martel- Music Video Director

Diane Martel- Music Video director

 Diane Martel is a Music Video Director but also a Choreographer.
She has worked with people such as Robin Thicke, Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Alicia Keys and Pixie Lott being involved in some of their main music videos.

The music videos Diane Martel has produced recently have been quite similar to each other simply because Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus are trying to make a mark by making their videos quite outrageous. Diane Martel obviously can not make all her videos the same because she is dealing with different people with different visions for their video's and also have different types of target audiences.  In Miley Cyrus's video "We Can't Stop" the setting is pretty plain behind by using bold words to point out certain lyrics in her music video. With Robin Thicke's first music video "Blurred Lines" the setting is all very plain using the bold words to make a mark and stand out. With these two very iconic videos they seem to have stood out because of the bold words used. For Miley Cyrus's video it was important for her to show a change from this Disney Channel Miley Cyrus to the new Miley Cyrus who was more outrageous so she had to make a mark and show how she was different. With Robin Thicke he was new to the industry so he had to make a mark to show that he was whitty and that people would want to buy his music. 

This shows that Diane Martel is quite a out there person wanting to make her videos memorable and have people talking about them because they are so different to every typical Hollywood music video. 
Diane Martel works with very popular acts in the music industry, she has worked with Beyonce and Mariah. With most of her videos being basic, she knows that the person in the video would make the video known and memorable because the person in the video will add there own vibe to the video making it known and rememberable.
With Beyonce the song is a very strong powerful ballad. In the video it is just Beyonce walking through rooms with pictures of her from when she was young to where she is now but when the song becomes intense she is in a hall on her own with a really effective light showing the emotion. Because the video is Beyonce's you don't need a big production because her voice is the production as it is so powerful so with a ballad song the video just needs to be laid back with not much going on. 

Before being a Music Video director, Diane Martel was a choreographer. In some of her music videos you can see a lot of choreography has been put in, but it depends on what type of music video it is, with Pixie Lott the video 'Boys and Girls' you can see that its a very upbeat song so she has got a lot of choreography, this shows that Diane Martel has taken to the challenge of the video and because its a very dancy song it was only relevant to have a lot of choreography with it.

Genres Of A Music Video

Analyse and Compare conventions from 4 different music video genres 
Rock, Hip Hop, Indie, Pop

Rock- Queen
With the Queen video "Bohemian Rhapsody"  you can see that it is very different to other videos because of how they are in a pitch black room with only their faces lit up. They will once or twice cross over to when they are performing to show that they are rock with the band and everything, but they make it very dark. In order for an effect the dark lighting makes the video more dramatic as it is a rock video it makes it a dark and hard feeling to the video. In their music video "I want to break free" the video is less serious and more fun, this shows that the band isn't just serious they can have a bit of fun but in Bohemian Rhapsody you can see that they have made it a serious song because of the speed of the song. 

Hip Hop- Drake

With this video "Started from the bottom" you can see all the materialistic items ranging from fancy cars to the big statement jewellery. When they are in the clubs there are big groups of people who are circling Drake to show that he is important to the video. Hip-Hop video's are normally very personal because there is a lot of hand action and making the video feel very personal. They also include lots of women in drugs. before they are in the club it shows how he started off working in a shop and how he has now developed to where he has got too. 

Indie- Oasis - "Wonderwall"
An example of Indie music is the band Oasis with they're videos you can see that their video's are very basic and boring, they are setting out to tell a journey. In these video's you don't see materialistic items its just a plain room with a few chairs. Indie is being individual so that they do something others don't. The guys in this video wear very stereotypical indie clothes, also they use very different music instruments to normal bands would use. In this video there is no over the top production it is simply them playing there instruments to the camera. 

Pop- Austin Mahone - "Say Something"
I think with pop artists they're music video's are normally more regularly released as they normally release quite a lot of singles more than other artists from different genre's. You will find with pop video's that they have more dancing and role play in the video, trying to express a feeling more than a story. As Austin Mahone is quite young you can see that he has the 'Preppy' look and is going for a traditional 'American High School' Look, that you would see the popular people in the school wearing in a film. His outfits are quite bright and noticeable so you would know which one he is. In his video it is quite like Justin Bieber and you get the feeling that the music video is a mix between one of Justin Bieber's videos and a high school musical song. 

From looking at all 4 different genre's of music, they all have their different edginess to it but the types of music video's they do aren't that eccentric unless they are really well known and have quite a lot of money. You will see that only some videos have a story behind that and that will either be with indie or pop, but mainly with indie. The video's all have their individual touch to them that makes it recognizable that its their video that you are watching. The difference between the videos is the way that they are produced and performed. Depending on what the video is and what sort of music you like depends on the video you will prefer. 

Research - What Is A Music Video & Recipe

What Is A Music Video? 

70's : David Bowie, in David Bowie's 'Golden Years' in the music video it isn't exactly a music video but you can see people dancing in the back ground with big hair and flaired trousers, in the video David Bowie is singning in different places, it seems to be a very slow video with lots of fading to different sections, looking at David from different angles. With the times that this is filmed you don't have all the fancy accessories and added extras that you have now in the 21st century so the video is quite basic as to what we see now. 

80's: Cyndi Lauper's music video "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". In this video you can see that it has been set up and it has gone into a more conventional music video, rather than being filmed on the stage like David Bowe's was , the time period has changed so there is more technology available to produce better videos and add story's to the songs. Cyndi Lauper's song isn't fast but it isn't slow, she puts a lot of energy into and I don't think it will have to much editing done in it. In this video I think that only one camera was used and not much rehearsal was needed throughout it.

90's: Spice Girls music video, "Stop". In this video you can tell that it is one camera use as the girls in the video are playing to the camera and it shooting the whole street, the video is starting to bring in choreography, although its very basic you can see the routines working in there slowly. At the start of the video there is a shot where it is from a long distance overlooking the buildings and sweeping in to then focus on one place. After that you can start to see the use of multi camera but the individuals in the group are very personal with the camera and are pointing in to it on close ups, maybe trying to draw the fans in to their videos. 

2000's: Fountain's of Wayne music video "Stacy's Mom". In this video you can tell that it has a definite aim and that is to get to his friends mum to like him. This video would of taken a bit of rehearsal and editing simply because of it being like a scene from a movie on how it is acted out. In this video they use multi-camera. You can tell that the technology has reached another stage by the high definition of the video and how it is filmed in comparison to the others above. There has been a change in what the people in the video are wearing, you can tell it is an american music video by the use of bright colours used. Also in this video you start to see the difference in costumes being more brand specific, such as Converse are being worn. In this video you can see the high use of graphics and how they have been merged with the music video to show the band and then the story. Throughout the video there is a lot of representation to the mother and toward the end there is a bit where it shows her as a stripper in the boys eyes, this is extremely different to what would have been allowed in music videos before and it would have been a risky music video coming into the new era. 

2010's: Katy Perry's music video "Roar". In this video its to show determination and getting through the roughest time, it is very choreographed and using lots of animation resulting in lots of editing. In this there is a lot of green screen used in order for it to be effective, the choreography is obvious and you can tell that the editing would have taken a long time because of the effects. You can tell that a lot of the video is green screen but it is also a representation of the day we are in now by using the multi camera and a lot of the multi media features that are now used in modern day life. In this video it is all a bit far fetched but its what makes people watch the videos to get the ratings, the more outrageous the better. 

From looking at all the videos as time has progressed the quality of the video's have got better but also more imagination has been put into the video's.
In each video you will see each video will have some form of routine if it being, dance, acting or playing to the camera.
When you move on from the 70's to the 2010's you will see that they move from single camera onto multi camera depending on how complicated they make the video and how if they have a classic heart felt song they might just have a plain video to if it was an upbeat song.
Each video is about 3minuets 40seconds long but there are some video's which are 4mins or 5mins depending on how they want to make the video and if they added story lines to the video so in that case extended the video.
Each video has a different meaning and point to it. The song would of been written for a reason and would of had a reason to be written. Sometimes video's make no sense but the point of an emotion would be put across.

My Recipe
- I will need to have a lead singer that will be singing in it because that is what most music videos have.
- I will then set it in either a stage or have a story to follow.
- I will then use some special effects, depending on the genre of the music video
- I will then have certain close ups on people depending on weather i do a group or an individual person for the music video.