Ideas

Artist - Sinead Harnett

Sinead Harrnett

When thinking about my artist I was very lucky that my Brother in Law is a music producer who knows many artists. I had two options for my music video as all the other music he has done has been released, I had 2 songs that didn't have a copyright from a big record label. I thought very closely about the two options:

My first option was a rap song which is talking about women, I thought this would be effective as I wanted to use a girl to rap it to show the thought of men through women but had to think closely about the marketing around the song and how I would be able to show the woman's point of view well in the music video. 

My second option was a pop song by Sinead Harnett who has sang for Rudimental and Discloser and is an up and rising singer. My Brother in Law directed a song with her and with his permission I thought this would be best to use. To my luck I really liked Sinead Harnett in other songs she has made and she is a great singer - unfortunately as an upcoming artist she is very busy and has many people to get through too talk to her so I thought it would be best to use someone I know in the video so I could have a flexible filming schedule.  

Director X - Auteur Theory

Auteur theory, theory of filmmaking in which the director is viewed as the major creative force in a motion picture. The auteur theory, which was derived largely from Astruc’s elucidation of the concept of caméra-stylo (“camera-pen”), holds that the director, who oversees all audio and visual elements of the motion picture, is more to be considered the “author” of the movie than is the writer of the screenplay. Such important visual elements as camera placement, blocking, lighting, and scene length, rather than plot line, convey the message of the film.

Director X

Director X has been noted to make high budget, visually distinctive music video for popular songs and artists. Director X has been making music videos since 1998. He has also made commercials. He has won many awards for his work. 

After watching videos from artists like Iggy Azalea, Kanye West, Drake and Nicki Minaj - I realised that his videos have a secure theme which enables a story line throughout the video. Director X said although music videos don't normally need to tell a story but he enjoys telling a story as it brings a topic and mood. He believes the stories should be intelligent, detailed and well structured. I also noticed that he has a key theme that the shot will fade in and out like a letter box in the opening and ending of each video. He is also very into art direction, lighting, wardrobe, pre/post production. After researching all his music videos I noticed that he specifically directs videos for R&B artists. He also shows his name in many music videos which shows that he is a very famous director and that he also has a good image as artists are happy to add him in when usually directors don't get much credit or recognition. 

Work of Director X

When watching a recent video 'Fancy' by Iggy Azalea, I noticed many of Director X's iconic themes in it. The first thing I spotted was the first shot opened like a letter box which he always adds in. I straight away spotted the story line which was the film 'Clueless' being retold. Director X always includes a story line in his music video's which could hint that he wants to be film director. The whole scene is perfectly arranged with the correct mise-en-scene which has been carefully thought about in every scene. The costume is also a big part of this video as they are very similar or identical to the original film which is vital to have to make the video look professional. There was many close ups of the artist which would come from the record label and is good for the audience as they feel relatable. The lip syncing used is a must in a music video as the audience wants to see the artist singing there favourite song. 

Hit Me Baby One More Time

To help us understand the many shots and editing for a short video, we completed a task to copy the hit me baby one more time video. We chose the first 30 seconds to complete. When starting the task we wrote a shot sheet so we could plan the video. To compete the task successfuly we completed a shot sheet to list each shot to enable us to know how many shots are needed, what angles are used and what is in the shots. This helped us with filming.  (add sheet)

After completing the task I learnt that there was many different shots that are used and how quickly the shots change to keep the attention. The video should have fast pace editing to keep the audience entertained. A video should include lip singing to make the audience understand the song and relate to the artist singing and also some dance moves could be added. A range of shots need to be included as well. 

The close ups are important as they went in time with the beat so using a close up enabled me to show this and focus specifically on it. 

                                                     I made sure I included a range of different angles in the music video which included high angles, low angles, mid shots and long shots as it is vital to include a range to get a feel of the location and characters. 

 I made a marking clip on the sound track so I was able to easily match up the right bit of the song with the lip-syncing so that it was in time with the track. This meant that the video looked professional.  

Types of Music Videos

Performance Based Video

A performance based is where the artist/band are performing the song just to the camera. I used Rihanna's - Where are you now video to explain this, in the video Rihanna dances and performs to the camera and there isn't much story line behind it, there are some shots where it changes to a story line but the majority of the video is performanced based. There is different locations to where the video is performed which keeps the video interesting.

Narrative Based Video

A A narrative based video is where the video is telling a story to the audience throughout, the story is usually about the lyrics they are singing about to help get a feel of the storyline. In Beyonce's If I was a boy music video she sings about if she was a boy in the relationship, through out the video she does things a man would do, this helps us understand the emotion in the video as we can see it happening.

Concept Based Video

A concept based video is when the video is based about an idea but hasn't got much to do about the lyrics, these could vary to many different ideas. Nicki Minaj's Superbass video doesn't focus on the lyrics at all, there is a lot of dancing and random storylines.