2. MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCTION
• We will look at Music Videos from a number of perspectives, this template is for
you to write up your notes and to complete your case study.
• The document is split into 3 different tasks, each with separate questions to
answer.
• Task 1 is concerned with the purposes of music videos and the strategies
employed by labels and artists
• Task 2 is concerned with the styles, techniques and conventions of music video
production
• Task 3 is your own case study into a minimum of three music videos where you
can unpack and discuss the videos considering everything you have looked at in
Task 1 and 2
• You are expected to submit each section on a weekly basis during your remote
learning weeks.
• If you get stuck, talk to/email your tutor for guidance.
3. NOTES ON COMPLETING THE
CASE STUDY
• It is often easier to show something you are discussing than to
take time describing it. With this in mind, feel free to add lots of
illustrative images from your chosen video examples. Links to
YouTube/Vevo/etc are also encouraged.
• Remember, when you make a point or define something, you
should follow this with an example, an explanation of this and
then link to further texts/videos where possible.
• If you don’t think there is enough room to add your full
response to a question, don’t just reset the font size to really
small, add an extra slide wherever necessary.
4. TASK 1 -
PURPOSES
Y O U S H O U L D O P E N T H E M U S I C L E C T U R E
P O W E R P O I N T A N D L O O K AT S E C T I O N 1
B E F O R E D O I N G T H I S TA S K
5. TASK 1 - PURPOSES
• Q1 - Outline the 3 core purposes of music video with a short explanation
for each:
• 1. The first core purpose of a music video is to entertain the audience,
giving us a sensational experience because when we watch music videos,
we are watching a song’s visual representation and we see what the
artists see when listening to their music.
• 2. The second core purpose is branding/identity. Branding is important
in the music industry because artists who often rely on their personal
images to reach and expand their audiences and secure deals.
• 3. The third purpose is sales. Music videos are another way of promoting
and marketing musical performers, many music videos of popular
mainstream artists have high production values.
6. TASK 1 - PURPOSES
• Q2 – What are some of the broader purposes of music videos?Try and outline a minimum of 3. (Think about
some of the strategies employed by artists in their videos and how they represent themselves, you could
consider where the artist is on a major label, independent label of unsigned, is there a difference between
them?)
• Independent artists or artists who are signed to a small record label do not have the
budgets that their major label counterparts have so their purpose of music videos is solely
to increase interest in music.
• Another broader purpose of music videos is to feature other artists from their label as a way
of promotion. This is because if your favourite artist collabs with someone else's favourite
artist it is more likely going to get more views/sales and do well in the industry.
• Music videos allow artists to still make money by uploading their songs and by doing this it
means that they don’t have to make the availability to go live.
7. TASK 1 - PURPOSES
• Q3 – Branding; select an artist you like and look at how they present themselves
in their music videos. Explain what their ‘brand’ is, who is appeals to and why
they might have done this.
• The artist I chose is Santan Dave. This artist is very representational and has a lot
of close-up shots and always in the center of the camera. The primary target
audience is teenage boys as the scenes of the music video is recreating an army
picture including guns and fire. Although the scenes are quite boyish, the target
audience can still be girls and his music is mostly listened to teenagers aged
15+. His music is very mainstreamed and has a large audience of up to millions,
because of this he will have a high budget
8. TASK 1 - PURPOSES
• Q4 – Compare One Direction and Animal Collective music videos [find them on YouTube!], what can you discern about each act
from their videos? What is the main aim? Explain why.
One Direction Animal Collective
In the One Direction music videos the
camera is always on one of the boys
faces.
In most of the music videos, One
Direction are walking about and
singing so everything is quite
repeated.
One Direction have a larger audience
meaning they probably have a higher
budget for nice locations and props.
It is very easy to follow and
understand what is happening in the
video.
In the Animal Collective video you can
rarely ever see anyone's faces and has
very dark lighting.
From watching the videos you get the
idea that the artists make music for their
enjoyment and the audiences
entertainment.
Animal Collective might not spend a lot
of money on the location and props or
anything like that because they have less
appealing music videos and are mostly
using objects rather than focusing on
face shots.
9. TASK 2 – STYLES,
TECHNIQUES AND
CONVENTIONS
Y O U S H O U L D O P E N T H E M U S I C L E C T U R E
P O W E R P O I N T A N D L O O K AT S E C T I O N 2
B E F O R E D O I N G T H I S TA S K
10. TASK 2 – STYLES, TECHNIQUES
AND CONVENTIONS
• Q1 – Describe and explain the use of camerawork in music videos, i.e. the types
of shot used with examples to illustrate this and how this creates meaning
• The camerawork for the One Direction videos are always quite similar as they are
usually face shots, close shots of them walking. This may create the feeling that
you are there watching them perform. It also can create a strong emotional
connection with the audience which One Direction obviously have.
• With the Animal Collective the camerawork isn’t like One Direction because they
don’t have any face shots so this might create a feeling of wanting to
understand the actual music more and have a emotional connection to the song
instead of the artists.
11. TASK 2 – STYLES, TECHNIQUES
AND CONVENTIONS
• Q2 - Describe and explain the use of editing in music videos, i.e. the types of
shot used with examples to illustrate this and what the effect of this is/meanings
that are created/etc
• One direction are always switching from singular shots to group shots ensuring
multiple viewing. The songs are edited to be quite fast paced and getting as
much pictures/different scenes in as possible.
• Whereas the Animal Collective band are more concentrated on just one scene,
and they edit different kind of objects and use special effects to create their
music videos.
12. TASK 2 – STYLES, TECHNIQUES
AND CONVENTIONS
• Q3 – Genre conventions; often music videos adhere to genre conventions within
their visual style and production techniques. Select a recognisable genre and use
illustrations to explain what their genre conventions are…
• One direction have crowd/group shots of when they all sing the chorus.
• They have colour themed outfits and are most of the time in a similar outfit to
one of the members.
• Animal Collective have dark lighting and have a relationship between lyrics and
visuals. They make you concentrate more to listen to the song and isn’t
something you can just listen to while doing something else.
13. TASK 2 – STYLES, TECHNIQUES
AND CONVENTIONS
• Q4 - John Stuart’s description of the music video “incorporating, raiding and
reconstructing” is essentially the essence of intertextuality [something asserted by Andrew
Goodwin]. Can you explain what intertexuality is and find a minimum of 3 examples of it in
music videos?
• The first example of intertexuality in One directions music video is when they colour
coordinate their outfits and have a neutral colour tone in the song “ What makes you
beautiful” which means they all have a similar fashion style.
• The second example is when they get camera shots of the locations, they are at which
comes under both photography and cinema, because they add little clips of them when
they aren’t singing, and it makes the audience feel as if they are watching their own
documentary.
14. TASK 3 – CASE
STUDY
Y O U S H O U L D O P E N T H E M U S I C L E C T U R E
P O W E R P O I N T A N D L O O K AT S E C T I O N 3
B E F O R E D O I N G T H I S TA S K
15. TASK 3 – CASE STUDY
• For your individual case study you must study an artist of choice, focusing
on a minimum of 3 videos [ideally 5+ videos]
• This should provide discussion on the usage of the following:
– Style[s] & Techniques employed
– Intertextuality
– Camerawork/editing
– Genre conventions
– Critical approaches [you should be applying some of the critical
approaches from your lessons and some of your own, to your selected
videos]
16. TASK 3 – CASE STUDY
• You should include a video link for the videos used
• You should include illustrative stills from the videos chosen
• Be creative in your approach, it is suggested you use the heading
on the previous slide a guide on how to structure your response to
get you started
• Remember, make a point, use a specific part of the chosen video as
an example, explain yourself and then link to another video where
possible
• Compare and contrast your artist/genre to other artists/genres
• Remember to consider differing contexts
• Add slides here as appropriate – DO NOT SHORT CUT THIS
SECTION, IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT
17. TASK 3-
CASE STUDY
VIDEO 1-
MESMERISED
Bru- C- bassline &
DNB
• Bru-c’s music videos are representational which
include a different variety of shots. These are
predominant close ups of the performer dancing,
walking and gesturing and there is also wide shots
of the location they are in. This brings me onto the
budget, from the location they shot it in you can
clearly tell the budget is high as the music video
includes props like nice cars and yachts.
• This artist is very mainstream
with a large audience. His
target audience is mostly
teenagers and above. This
links to the scenes about
partying because people aged
18-30 are most likely to be
drinking so that is probably the
age group who listen to his
music.
In these 2 images we are
shown scenes of partying.
Most of Bru-C’s music
videos contain partying as
his music could be classed
as dance and we would
associate drinking and
dancing together.
His music is easy to
follow and clearly
understandable.
(206) Bru-C - Mesmerised - YouTube
Most of his shots in the music video
was a crowd/group of men and women
partying on a yacht or boat but there
was some close up singular shots.
18. TASK 3- CASE
STUDY
VIDEO 2- YOU & I
• American references:
• Sporty cars
• Big houses/gardens
• Swimming pools & hot tubs in garden
AllfilmedinBritain
These close up shots of
the clothing almost looks
like an advert for a
fashion brand.
The way that they start the video
off with a drone in the sky driving
in a sports car around big houses
and swimming pools with trees
that looks like palm trees gives
the impression to the audience
that they are in America.
• Long/wide shots
• Close ups
• Repeated formula-
hand gestures,
movement of the
crowd and himself
• The beats of his
songs are similar
The way that the music video has
been edited is by different
montages and of clips and then split
up. This means it goes from a car
scene to a party scene then it will
repeat and go back to a car scene
but with different actions and words
said so its not exactly the same.
An example is here as
you can see at 1:15 he
is by the car and at
2:20 an almost
identical clip has been
inserted again.
(206)
Bru-C
-
You
&
I
[Music
Video]
-
YouTube
19. TASK 3- CASE
STUDY
VIDE0 3-
FREEDOM
• Genre conventions:
• Swimming pools
• Cars
• Expensive items
• Partying
In his music there is a repetition of him showing off all of
these things. By doing this he shows us that he is wealthy like
many other artists within his genre. I think that the performer
included these specific things in his videos because the target
audience he is aiming to get probably wants to live a similar
lifestyle like this and he most likely wants to live like this
aswell.
(206) Bru-C - Freedom [Music Video] - YouTube
• Groups of people
• Mise-en-scene signifies
status – expensive
clothes/items
• Partying/extravagant
behaviour dominates
• Live
performances/festivals/rave
s
21. LINKING FORWARD…
• Now it’s important to think about how you can use some of what
you’ve learned in your investigations for your own work.
• Summarise in this section the key techniques, styles, conventions
and genre you prefer and what you think you could use in your
project.
• Think of this as a place to put all those loose ideas for your music
video and how you intend to apply the things you’ve enjoyed
looking at.
• Remember, music video is a medium that has a lot freedom in
terms of form and style. It is also the medium that steals,
incorporates and re-integrates all the things you have seen and
experienced.
• Add slides as necessary, it will make the next section of the
much easier
22. LINKING TO MY MUSIC
VIDEO
• For my music video I want to include captions over the screen
like Bru-C. I want to do this for the name of the song because
then people know what my song is called. I will do this by
editing it in premiere pro.
• I will also have close up shots of clothing for a Mise-en-scene
signifying expensive items. I will do this by zooming in on the
camera or moving closer to the people in the shot.
