Genre Conventions in Music Videos

Horror

Themes: Themes in typical horror videos whether that be in film or music videos would usually be very graphic, often it starts as calm and gradually builds its suspense becoming scarier with possible unexpected turns. They may also be 'jumpy' having its audience on edge as they watch it.
Often, in horror films, there will be two victims rather than one against a villain and they are likely to form a relationship due to their vulnerability. In films there isn't usually a happy ending in these however I'm focusing on music videos and usually these are more light-hearted and fun. Typically in horror I would also expect there to be a cliff-hanger at the end.

Mise en scene: The lighting in horror films will often be dark and dim. Props can range from anything between knives to fake hand and arms, costumes will also be dark and overall have a tatted feel to them. The setting that comes to mind when I think of a horror is a graveyard, somewhere lonely and abandoned where 'no one can hear you scream'  as these are often places where victims are hurt

Types of characters: There is often at least one victim and perhaps their friend/lover/family member, with a villain who is after them. There may be some kind of a psycho-villain or monster which may be in an inanimate form but has come to life such as a clown, as many people fear these.

Target audience: The target audience will often depend on the artist of the music video as different artists attract different ages, however in saying that most artists stick to a particular genre and so their fans will listen to and watch whatever they produce. Artists that produce some horror videos often have fan-bases of people aged 20+ as its more suitable for that audience than younger children, for example.

Examples of music videos:

• Thriller - Michael Jackson
• Sweet Dreams - Marilyn Manson
• Enter Sandman - Metallica
• Never say Never - The Frey

Genres it works well with: Mystery, Thriller.

Romance

Themes: In a romantic music video a theme I would expect a story of a relationship, whether that's how two people met and fell in love, the process of the two falling in love, or even perhaps a breakup. I would also expect to see flashbacks and memories of one of the individuals showing their love for their significant other. In some music videos you will see the couple coming to breaking point as they fight and something or someone comes in between them, however it more often than not, ends well and they live 'happily ever after'.

Mise en scene: (lighting, props, setting)I would expect the scenery in romantic music videos to be very easy on the eye, with 'beautiful'/'incredible' views for example a soft and colourful sunset in the background, or a vibrant city with skyscrapers, or even a peaceful beach or country side. The scenery would be like this because the characteristics of these settings signify characteristics of a good relationships; happy, beautiful and peaceful. Also, places such as those mentioned above are types of places good memories can be made for the couple, e.g. ; walks on the beach.

Types of characters: A girl and boy in a relationship together, perhaps an ex girl/boyfriend and maybe even friends or family members that could come between the pair.

Target audience: People of all ages 16+ would most likely be able to appreciate a good romantic music video pulling at the heartstrings however the majority of the audience to these videos will be females. The audience will also depend on the narrative behind the video, if its about a mature romance and love then an older audience will be more inclined to watch it however if its about a younger love then, likewise, a younger audience will be attracted to it, such as in 'Everything has changed' by Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift.

Examples of music videos:

• What If - Jason Derulo
• Thinking out loud - Ed Sheeran
• She Will be Loved - Maroon 5
• A thousand years - Christina Perri

Genres it works well with: Drama, Comedy, Teen

Comedy

Themes: Comedy music videos are very diverse in that everyone finds different things funny. Rather than films, music video comedies usually have a funny narrative that's easier to understand where the audience don't have to look too deeply into the joke to find it funny, also the narrative usually relates back to the lyrics of the song. Comedy films may contain a lot of adult humour, making it enjoyable however in music videos there's no dialogue, meaning body language and action has to be funny for example an awkward/standout dance routine like in Gangnam Style - Psy

Mise en scene: Comedies are also very diverse in terms of mise-en-scene. The setting can vary, if its a comedy about a relationship between neighbours then the setting may be in a neighbourhood such as in Carly Rae Jepson's 'Call me maybe'. However, if its a comedy music video about high school, it will be filmed in a class/canteen etc such as in 'Who's Laughing Now' by Jessie J. Usually it will be light-hearted and therefore light and upbeat with 'normal' costumes (daily life casual clothing) or outrageous costumes for funny dances.

Types of characters: boy/girl, parents, siblings, friends, and some kind of enemy of the main character for example an annoying little brother or a sly ex-friend.

Target audience: The target audience will vary depending on the type of comedy music video, if it is a comedy film about a relationship/breakup its likely the target audience will be teens/young adults, however if its just a generally funny video with an iconic dance such as Gangnam Style, all ages could enjoy it, as proven by Psy.
  
Examples of music videos:

• Gangnam Style - Psy, 
• Call me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepson,
• We are never getting back together - Taylor Swift,
• Who's laughing now - Jessie J

Genres it works well with: Romance, Teen and Musical.

Drama

Themes: Themes in dramatic music videos are that they often communicate however exaggerate realistic stories in order to emotionally affect the audience. Its important that the situations/narratives of these videos are realistic in order for the audience to feel connected to the story, for example a death of a loved one, conflict in a relationship or a tragedy such as the Titanic, which is linked to Celine Dion's 'My Heart will go on' . Often in drama music videos the story will be explained in detail from beginning to end however focusing more on feelings over what happened, unlike a film. This can be done through the use of body language and miming the lyrics. There is also usually a romantic element to them.

Mise en scene: (lighting, props, setting) This will depend on the narrative and storyline of the music video. If there has been a tragedy then the setting will be in the location the tragedy took place, however the lighting is usually dark to reflect the emotion of feeling low/upset.

Types of characters: man, woman, friends, ex lover, enemy

Target audience: Usually between the ages of 16-35 as they can often require mature intellect and this age range are considered the most interested in music culture although it doesn't discriminate against ages older than 35 as they could also be interested in this genre of music videos. These music videos are more likely to be aimed at a female audience however, also doesn't discriminate against males.

Examples of music videos:

• My heart will go on - Celine Dion
• Clown - Emili Sande
• If I were a boy - Beyoncé
• Back to Black - Amy Winehouse.

Genres it works well with: Romance, Teen,  Thriller/Adventure.

Documentary

Themes: In a documentary music video, I would expect to be told a true story that presents the realities of a certain topic for example, bullying or crime or somebodys life. I would expect to see a story or event unfold . The video should be delivered in a time-line style, where the events unravel. For example in Little Mix's Cannonball music video, you see their journey from auditioning for the x factor to winning it, or in Justin Bieber's "Beauty and a Beat" video you see a party at Justin's house from the start of the garden to the end.

Mise en scene: The lighting, props and setting really depend on the documentary and what it's about, for Justin's party video for example, I would expect everyone to be in 'dressy' outfits with party lights in a party environment with lots of people present. Props may include alcohol or cups etc, anything you would expect to be present at a party.

Types of characters: The main characters involved in these are the ones involved in the story/documentary. For 'Canonball', all of little mix were in it as well as their mothers supporting their journey, and the x factor judges as well as their competition.

Target audience: Music videos that are in a documentary style are very broad in terms of the audience they attract, however most often they document a part of the artist's life and so the target audience is the artists adoring fans who want to know everything about them. Therefore typically the age range may be from 12-25.

Examples of music videos:

• Cannonball - Little Mix
• Beauty and a Beat - Justin Bieber
• Am I Wrong -  Nico & Vinz.

Genres it works well with: Culture and Society.

Mocumentary

Themes: In a mock-umentary I would expect to see everything I have mentioned above in the documentary from the people that would feature in it to how the story would unfold. However the main theme here is comedy, a story will unfold however it will be told in a way that is comedic. The mocking may be to a certain extent rude or be seen as discriminatory, however the narrative behind them is often the artist being defensive or joking about themselves, for example in Taylor Swifts 'Blank Space' video, she subtly mocks the medias constant headlines that she is a 'crazy girlfriend' by playing that role. Another example is Katy Perry's 'last Friday night', a video where she is the nerd at a cool party, almost making fun of  people who are actually nerds.

Mise en scene: Like the documentary, the setting, costume, lighting and props will heavily vary depending on what the narrative is about, however these videos wont be 'deep' in any way, they will be quite light hearted therefore the lighting will often be lighter and costumes wont be too intense as they would perhaps in the fantasy or comedy genre.

Types of characters: I would expect to see some exaggerated or flamboyant characters for this mockumentary genre, such as Katy in 'Last Friday Night' or the boy in 'All About that Bass' confidently dancing. Most of the other characters would just be 'Normal' to emphasise the 'weirdness' or to draw even more attention to the 'abnormal' character that is being mocked or doing the mocking. Characters include, friends, bullies, boyfriend/girlfriends and perhaps family/parents depending on the narrative.

Target audience: I believe mocumentaries are to be taken less seriously, and because of this are aimed at a younger and 'more fun' audience, however the audience must also be able to understand the joke and what it is that's being mocked, therefore the age range is most likely 16-29

Examples of music videos:

• Blank Space - Taylor Swift
• Last Friday night - Katy Perry
• All about that bass - Meghan Trainor

Genres it works well with: comedy, society and culture.

Research and Planning in Class

In class today we carried out an exercise where many different photographs were printed and handed out to everyone in the class. Each one of us had to write three questions we had about the photo and pass it round and answer each others. After this, we passed them round again and had to come up with a plot synopsis based on the answers we saw to the questions on the back of the photo.

I ended up with a picture of a child looking through a glass window at an ape.

The questions and answers were as follows:

1) Why is the ape so moody?  'Because he had trouble with his side girls and he decided to take it out on  a small child'

2) Who took this? 'Mr Cole, while on tour with the boys'

3) What did the little girl think was happening? 'She thought the ape was princess peach, she assumed she was upset because Mario had been cheating on her with Luigi, behind her back. This child is crazy'

The film idea / plot synopsis I generated from this was...

The Ape has been taken from its true love in the wild and put in a zoo, he's been there for 3 lonely years and has finally decided its time to move on but as he tries to do this, the female Apes reject him which makes him both guilty and angry which leads him to take his anger out on the little girl.

The little girl thought the ape was a princess from a fairy-tale she read and she saw that the ape was lonely, so she starts speaking to him through the glass.

Some tourists see the exchange and laugh about it saying the girl's talking to an Ape that doesn't understand her, but later the girl and the Ape become friends as her dad works at the enclosure so she always visits, eventually she helps him escape.

In the end, the Ape reunites with his original lover and years later the girl goes on a safari in the wild, sees the Ape and he runs up to her and thanks her.

This would be an animated childrens film.
                     

Preliminary Task Feedback

I decided to gather feedback on my preliminary task by asking 5 people who watched it to write an anonymous note on a sheet of paper, this is what they said...

I'm really pleased with the comments made overall, the suggestion about including more types of relationships for the final piece is one I strongly agree with in order to make the video more interesting. The other constructive comment made was that 'home style' videos shouldn't take up the majority of the video - which is something I agree with too therefore overall, I'm happy.

When it comes to filming the main task, I want to continue using my DSLR, however I want to learn more about how to use it. I also want to use more equipment such as a tripod, to remove any shaking in clips etc - to make it more professional. I want to explore more with editing softwares too and see what else they can do other than let me put two clips next to each other.

Luckily, the preliminary task is just a practice round, getting me to grips with filming a music video, so I look forward to developing new skills and learning more, to make my music video a fantastic piece of work.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Preliminary Task

I have decided to make a music video for my preliminary task, here is the criteria:

• 1-3 characters
• either be either a narrative/montage or a live performance
• maximum of 3 locations
• include some form of sound other than music
• Just over a minute long

Below is my preliminary task.

I am happy with how my prelim task turned out however I know that theres a lot I want to improve on next year in terms of shooting and capturing moments properly, as well as editing. The concept behind my preliminary music video was basically a girl having a fun day out with her friends, later in the music video it would have shown she was going through some issues, and it would then tie in that her friends were there to help her out, and mean a lot to her. 

I used 3 characters in total for this, and chose the style for it to be a narrative/montage. I wanted to create a really authentic feel so decided the way to do this was by perhaps not being as professional and keeping the shots clean and cut, so that it looked like a 'home video' with the friends themselves taking the video/vlog to remember the day they had - for the parts in this style there is a 'recording' overlay, edited on top of the shot.

I used 3 locations, in the malls hallways/enterances, Boots store (in the mall) and Lisa Angel (also in the mall), and the sound other that music that I used is the edited camera shutter sounds I added onto the film in the editing process.

Overall, I am pleased with how my preliminary task turned out, and should I keep the same sort of idea for a narrative when it comes to making the real thing, I may use some of the shots - although like I said, this year I would like to improve my film making and editing skills before it comes to making my final piece/music video.

Content Decisions Based On Research

Based on my research into existing products I would like to go into producing a music video, this is because I want to branch out of filming films in order for a challenging change from last years AS project.

One reason in particular behind my decision is, when I filmed my AS film opening, I found that my camera would make a lot of noise whilst focusing, also, the actress would occasionally laugh or come out of character by talking, and as some of the opening didn't contain a voiceover, I had to very carefully edit certain scenes so that I was happy with the end product. Having a voiceover and deleting the original audio made the product appear much more professional and I found that it was easier to capture the actress' emotion through body language with alternative audio rather than through her acting, as she wasn't a professional and was quite nervous and shy. Due to this I have chosen the music video brief to avoid this problem in the future as I want the content I produce to be outstanding.

As well as this, I believe body language and actions are more powerful than words sometimes, and shots telling a story by these means alongside powerful lyrics combined, are something I believe can produce a strong narrative and music video of high standards.

Music is something everyone can connect to, its a part of daily life in todays society and I want my music video to be meaningful, therefore I believe the best way I can do so, is to go down the path of a music video.

I plan to work alone for this brief as it's important that the end result is outstanding, and I have some specific ideas and visions of what I would like the music video to include and I don't want to be distracted from my focused ideas. I would prefer to rely on myself and ensure I produce the film properly over anything else.

This year I want to improve my time management and organisation, last year I left the filming to the last minute due to having problems with trying to find times when me and the actress were available, I believe I could solve this by including other characters I can rely on in the music video instead of just one.

I was quite happy with the beginning of my film opening last year, it included many artistic shots I enjoyed both filming and watching, so I would like to include shots of the same quality or even higher quality in this years music video.

Something I'd like to do completely differently is to include a larger amount of characters, last year I only had one. I would also like to have no dialogue - hence my reasoning behind choosing a music video, as I don't want to risk the quality of the film being lowered due to the actors acting skills.

Overall, by the end of the year I would like to have produced an outstanding, artistic music video with a good narrative behind it and a meaningful song playing with expressive lyrics. I'm excited to make this content and am happy to accept the challenge of it!

'Prank Patrol' - Profesionally Made Childrens TV Show

One very popular children's TV show I have decided to research is a series called 'prank patrol', its a reality children's programme where fans of the show can enter themselves in to prank their friends/family. Below is one of the pranks titled 'Fortune Teller'.

Right at the beginning you can see the title and it appears to be very appealing to children as there's the shows host standing in between two 'prank patrol ninja's' in full costume with a bright purple background. Its fun and immediately you can tell this show is for a younger audience.

There is then dialogue front the host narrating previews of what will happen throughout the episode which is useful as it breaks the narrative down for the children watching, reminding them what is happening so that its easy for them to watch and understand. The narrators voice is very engaging as he changes his pitch accordingly to what he is saying and himself, seems excited about what he is saying, which will only have a positive impact on the young audience.

In this particular episode there are 4 key characters: the sister pranking, the brother being pranked, the friend and the actor a.k.a the owner of the arcade. This is necessary and not over excessive as these are the amount of people needed in order for the prank to be successful.

The music themes in it are consistent, with creepy/scary music playing after the brother is told by the fortune teller he is cursed followed by a piece similar to jaws playing shortly after. This emphasises the brothers feelings of being scared to us and puts the audience on edge, which is effective for this prank due to the nature of it. There are also a few sound effects which make the show more interesting and appealing to the children, for example at the beginning titles when the 'prank patrol' sign is 'placed' on the top left of the purple box.

There is two main locations which is perfect for a children's show as they don't have to concentrate on much; the location of the prank (arcade) and backstage where the pranking sister observes.

The costumes within the show are also something that adds to the realness of this being a 'prank patrol', for example the sister comes out wearing a prank patrol costume to reveal to her brother that he's been pranked, whilst him and his friend are in casual clothing as they didn't expect to be featuring on the show. The ninja's at the beginning which I mentioned above in full costume add to the show being more fun and child-like. As well as this, at the end credits the boys that were pranked are wearing 'prank patrol' t-shirts whilst reacting to what just happened, promoting the show further so that the young audience watching it want to apply for it.

The editing style is relatively fast paced, particularly at the height of the tension with faster cuts coming from many different angles e.g. aerial/close up reaction shots, adding to the suspense and detail of how the boy being pranked is feeling.

Finally, the credits include the key characters talking about what has happened, the shot is framed within a purple box with rectangles moving around it making what is in the frame appear more interesting.

Overall I think this is a great TV show for children, there are many successful attempts through editing/costume etc to help keep the show creative and interesting to its audience. If I decide to produce a children's TV show I would definitely take note from the different pointers I have mentioned above to entice the younger viewers.