This document provides guidance for completing a case study assignment on music video production. It outlines three tasks to be completed: 1) understanding the purposes and strategies of music videos, 2) examining the styles, techniques and conventions of music video production, and 3) conducting a case study analysis of at least three music videos. The document provides questions to answer for each task and notes on how to structure the case study response. Learning outcomes, assessment criteria and tips for illustrating points are also covered.

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Music Video Production
Case Study
Sjon Barnes

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Unit 29 - 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

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Unit 29 – Music Video Production
 Learning outcomes, this case study is concerned with the first
two learning outcomes of the unit:
1. Understand the purpose of music videos
2. Understand the styles, conventions, and techniques of music
videos
3. Be able to originate and plan a music video production for a
specific music track
4. Be able to work to complete production of a music video.

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Unit 29 – Music Video Production
Assessment Criteria
 The assessment criteria addressed by this case study, further
details are in your project brief:

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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.

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Task 1 - Purposes

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Task 1 - Purposes
Outline the 3 core purposes of music video with a short
explanation for each:
Entertainment, The music videos are there for the entertainment of fans instead of the band
performing live, this can enable the fans to enjoy their music in their own time whenever they
want. Most of the time the music video can be free for the fans to enjoy on a streaming
platform like YouTube.
Branding and Identity, Branding is when a band creates a style or identity, that can be easily
recognizable for the fans or the people who could potentially buy their music. A music video
can be an extension of this brand, which could reflect a combination of their style and ideas.
This can be in the conventions of a genre and to be able for consumers to easily recognize
their music and to tell apart their music from other bands music.
Sales, In a music video, the band or person can do things that can gain more revenue to add
on to the sales of the music on it’s own. This can be endorsing products in the video. You can
also get additional revenue from services like Vevo where you’ll get a YouTube channel for
example “One Direction Vevo” is the official One Direction YouTube channel.

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Task 1 - Purposes
What are some of the broader purposes of music videos? 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?
One of the main reasons artists starting doing music videos is because some really popular bands
back in the 1960s for example “The Beatles” started making these as a way to let fans enjoy the
video without having to go to the concerts and for the bands to gain extra revenue for the album.
The videos can also display a story to make the sound more understandable for example Ed
Sheeran’s song “Castle on the Hill” is better understood when you watch the video as it lets the
audience interpret the song better with the video.
Music videos can also be done for the purpose of endorsing new products to increase sales of a
certain product, sometimes these companies pay a lot of money for their product to be endorsed in a
video. For example the Beats brand is in Dre’s music videos most of the time.
Sometimes music videos are there as a way to reinforce a political message for example “Rage
Against The Machine” are known for their political messages in their music. Artists are also known
to put other artists or celebrities in their music videos as a means of promotion for example Shia
LaBouef in Sia’s music videos and also Beyoncé and Lady Gaga featuring together in a video.

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Task 1 - Purposes
Q3 – Describe what is ‘synergy’ is and how it has been used in
music videos [min. 3 examples of synergy and convergence]
Synergy is when a brand puts a very recognizable asset into other products and adverts. This
was first used in the 1930s when Disney bought a copyright of Mickey Mouse so when other
companies uses Disney or Mickey Mouse in other products Disney as a company gains more
and more revenue.
In the 1980s if an certain song managed to get heavy rotation on MTV, then that song would
top the charts for that week and the artist would gain a lot more money because of sales for
that song.
Major labels now look for a co-branding method as a way to justify the very glossy music
video the artist created but this doesn’t count as product placement as it’s only for a certain
amount of time as true synergy occurs when the brand and artist are inseparable. Sometimes
this happens outside large brand strategies for example Pass The Courvoisier by Busta
Rhymes

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Task 1 - Purposes
Select an artist you like and look at how they present themselves in
their music videos. Explain what their ‘brand’ is, who does this appeals
to and why they might have done this.
There are two examples of Artists with a certain brand, these are the band Lukas Graham and the
artist Ed Sheeran. There brand is telling a story through a song which is then backed up by a video
that puts a picture in the audiences mind of what the story is about.
This appeals to the teenage years as most of their songs are related to problems or scenarios that
people of those ages are having. This gives artists and their brand an advantage when it comes to
connecting with their fans as their songs and music videos can relate to the fans which are mostly
teenagers.
The main songs that both of these artists use to portray a story to the audience to are Castle On The
Hill by Ed Sheeran, 7 Years, Happy Home and Mama Said by Lukas Graham. Lukas’s main aspect
of some of his songs like Mama Said was to do with his poor upbringing in Denmark which makes
him seem more human than some artists do, which is why he gains more fans due to how relatable
he his to life. While Ed Sheeran also shared the same aspects in his new album Divide as the songs
Castle on the Hill and Shape of You were about his childhood and what he did as a teenager.

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Task 1 - Purposes
Compare One Direction and Animal Collective music videos, what
can you discern about each act from their videos? What is the main
aim? Explain why.
One Direction, In their music videos it’s very mainstream and much like a stereotypical boy
band from this era of music, the video looks very well made and big value you can tell by the
number of actors that appear in the video and by the location of the videos. It is also more
professional than the Animal Collective music videos as at the start of every video they
display who directed the video making it look more like a short film.
Animal Collective, Their music videos are very niche and alternative from most mainstream
music videos, the reason behind this obscure theme of music video is because they are
relatively unknown meaning they can afford to explore different themes to be more artistic and
because they don’t have a big business brand behind them making their music videos for
them, they are doing this so they can stand out in the industry and maybe attract more sales
and views of their music videos. In value, compared to One Direction the difference is
massive. For example Animal Collective don’t have a proper director to show at the beginning
of their video and they also don’t have an array of actors to appear in their videos. They also
don’t have fancy locations to do the videos in like One Direction do.

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Task 2 – Styles, Techniques
and Conventions

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Task 2 – Styles, Techniques and
Conventions
Describe and explain the use of camerawork in music videos, i.e.
the types of shot used with examples to illustrate this
In many music videos nowadays, there are more close up shots of the artists. This is because
many music videos are viewed on smartphones or other small device screens instead of TVs
on channels like MTV. The other reason close ups are more common now is because instead
of selling the song they try to emphasize the artist more to make his face more noticeable.
Due to the rise of technology in the last 10 years, music videos have become more creative
for example in Panic At The Discos Emperors New Clothes, the artist had to do his dance and
lip sync considerably slower than normal. This is to give a fast motion effect of the characters
transformation into a demon.

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Panic At The Disco
Ok, Go

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Task 2 – Styles, Techniques and
Conventions
Describe and explain the use of editing in music videos, i.e. the way
in which shots are sequenced, considering the rhythm of the edit
and combinations of shots and post-production techniques
For music videos, the video will have been edited to have different styles or to lip sync the
song to the video. The most common edit for a music video is the fast cut montage, this is
where they put multiple shots in the video and cut between them. Some videos have slow
transitions in montages to add mood and depth to the music video.
Other more creative edits in music videos are doing something that accompanies the beat of
the song. “Ok, Go” did this in their video “I won’t let you down” where the umbrellas matched
the beat of the music.

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Task 2 – Styles, Techniques and
Conventions
Describe and explain some of the technical developments in music
videos, i.e. in terms of how the music videos are filmed,
edited/produced and viewed
In the last few years, there has been big technological advancements in film. An example of
the new style of technology is the drone cam. In “Ok, Go’s” video “I won’t let you down”, the
entire video was mostly comprised of a controlled drone camera, “Ok, Go” also did a video
called “writing on the wall” where they used optical illusions and camera tricks to make the
video. Artists do videos like this to stand out on YouTube.
When the technology for making a music video has drastically changed, so has viewing one.
20-30 years ago, the ways to view a music video was either to buy it on tape or to view the
video on TV channels like MTV. Nowadays to view a music video you can watch it on
YouTube on a smartphone, meaning you can watch a music video wherever you are. The
changes made in viewing a music video has made it effortless and it’s free compared to when
you had to buy it on tape.

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Task 2 – Styles, Techniques and
Conventions
Genre conventions; often music videos adhere to genre conventions within
their visual style and production techniques. Select a recognizable genre
and use illustrations to explain what their genre conventions are…
The genre I chose to look at was the popular Rock genre, this started in the United States and
the UK in the 1950s/1960s. The genre usually has a band of 4, a Drummer, Bass Guitar, Lead
Guitar and a Singer, this genre focuses mainly on the Lead Guitarist or the Singer
With music videos, the rock genre was very against the music videos to start with as fans
thought they were just ‘sell outs’ if they did make music videos. Guns N’ Roses and Aerosmith
started the trend for the rock genre of having short films.
These are some of the music videos that stand out in the Rock Genre, music videos like
Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” which is a parody video based off a generic 70s cop show. Some
videos like Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” are quite sad and this was due to the fact this was about his
life just before he died, that was voted greatest music video of all time by NME which is a
music website. Some are quite dramatic and are supposed to deliver a message to people
like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Heart Shaped Box” also Rage Against The
Machine’s “Guerrilla Radio”.

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Task 2 – Styles, Techniques and
Conventions
John Stuart’s description of the music video “incorporating, raiding
and reconstructing” is essentially the essence of intertextuality
Can you explain what intertextuality is and find some examples of it
in music videos?
Intertexuality is a visual reference to another source, this can occur in photography, cinema
film, fashion and video games. Famous examples of this have been Madonna’s Material Girl
(1985) being a reference to Marilyn Monroe’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Others are
Shania Twain Man I feel like a woman (1999) being a reference to Robert Palmer’s Addicted
to Love (1986).
To aim for the younger audience and to make the music video interesting, artists have used
video game intertextuality to influence a younger audience into watching their music videos.
An example of this is Robbie Williams’ “Let Love Be Your Energy” (2001) and Red Hot Chili
Peppers’ “Californication” (1999).

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Task 3 – Case Study

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Task 3 – Case Study
 For your individual case study you are required to prepare
material on a minimum of three music videos.
 This should provide discussion on the usage of the following:
 Purpose of the video [consider the strategy of the artist and the
intention behind the video, remember the core purposes and break
this down into the other purposes we discussed]
 Style[s] used
 Techniques employed
 Intertextuality
 Camerawork/editing
 Genre conventions

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Music Video One –
The One Moment, Ok Go (2016)
The purpose of this music video was to show that a lot can happen in a few seconds, this
meaning can be found at the start where they show the whole video in normal time which was
4.2 seconds long which is why the video is called “The One Moment” because it was all filmed
in one moment. The main camera technique used throughout this video was Slow Motion, this
links to the purpose of the video. As I said before the video was filmed in 4.2 seconds of real
time, but the video was stretched out to 3 Minutes and 10 Seconds (I didn’t include the
additional parts at the end as that wasn’t shown at the start of the video). This camera
technique was used to present the meaning of the video visually to the audience, but is was
also used to stand out. The band Ok Go are known for their great music videos rather than
their music, if they never did such creative music videos they wouldn’t be known at all. The
video was very visually pleasing using a variety of different colours, many of these colours
were exploding across the screen in slow motion, these explosions were often in time with the
beat. If they used bland colours like grey, white and black, the video wouldn’t look as good but
because of these use of colours during the slow motion the video looks better. According to
Google the genres “Ok Go” use genres like Alternative Rock, Pop Rock and Power Rock, this
is true many of their songs are Rock/Pop genre style.

23. These are the main examples of the colourful
slow motion explosions within the music video
“The One Moment”

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Music Video 2 –
Bittersweet Sympathy, The Verve (1997)
The music video for Bittersweet Sympathy is quite simple, it’s a man walking down the
street with the camera in front of him, doing various aggressive things to strangers like
pushing them over etc. The video is meant to show that the character just doesn’t care
about anything which is why he does all this stuff in the video. There are a variety of
camera techniques used in this video, including close ups, medium shots and the occasional
long shot. The medium shots is the camera technique most used in this video although
there are many close up shots. The only time there is a long shot is at the start of the
video, in the middle of the video when he stands on a car and at the end of the video when
he walks off with his friends. There has been one key parody made from this video and that
was when Chris Moyles returned to the radio and decided to film his first advert where
Bittersweet Symphony was filmed. This included him pushing people over and at one point
flipping over a cake. After searching Google for what genre The Verve are, I found that The
Verve are a Alternative Rock and sometimes Britpop band this is quite true and Bittersweet
Symphony does represent those genres of music

26. The Verve, Bittersweet
Symphony Chris Moyles Return
Parody Video

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Music Video 3 -
Happy Home, Lukas Graham
This song portrays a man who just walked out of hospital and is seeing the world for what it
really is, and at the end went home and sat in a chair. This man ignored everything the public
did to him throughout the video as he just wanted to get home. The majority of this video is
not lip synced but some of it especially the ending is lip synced probably just to add a bit of
connection with the audience. There are a variety of camera techniques used here including,
slow motion, close ups, long shots and medium shots which are from what I have learnt, the
most common shot for a music video. The slow motion was used primarily for the riot scene
which is close to the end. The video has a slow start, it starts with a long shot of the streets
followed by a medium walking shot of the corridor in the hospital it then cuts to the guy who
just wakes up in hospital. The video is 4 minutes and 4 seconds long, however the first 26
seconds have no music and are just there to set the scene. Lukas Graham are a band that
mainly focus on Pop, Funk and Soul Pop music, there are 3 categories because Lukas
Graham have only really become popular in the last 3 years and they have only released 2
albums one in 2012 ans the other in 2015 which was the successful album. There have been
no parodies made of this video unlike Bittersweet Symphony probably because this song is
too deep to make a parody on. The last thing I noticed is how the video goes with the lyrics of
the video. When it talks about newspapers, the man walks past and looks at a newspaper
stall, and when he's on about celebrities not being like the media look like you see two
potentially famous people getting arrested.