Research- other music videos

To make a good music video, it was a good idea to look at some that have already been done and get ideas like "Oh i like that, we'll use it" or "Thats awful, we won't do that!".



One video i looked at was Songbird, by Oasis, a British rock band. The song is actually an acoustic song, rather than an electric guitar lead rock song like they normally do. Oasis songs normally feature little or no narrative and focus more on performance, and this video is no different. The video focuses around Liam Gallagher on his guitar while singing too. There are very few other people in the video, leaving Liam isolated in the video, which is an idea that my group have had for our video. I like the setting as it's simple and very few locations are used, keeping the video easy to follow.

I also liked some of the shots used, like the long shots of him walking and some of the close ups of Liam and the guitar. These are shots we may use in our piece, as they are easy to do and can tell the story of the song (example: long shot shows isolation/location, close ups show character emotions).

I think this video is very good: it's simple and focuses more on performance as a lot of rock music videos do. It also uses the idea of loneliness well, and how someone on their own can still make the video flow and keep it interesting. However, I feel our piece will be much more different as the lyrics of the song can be more easily interpreted and put into a narrative better than the lyrics to Songbird can.

Alright our kid :)

Agnostic Clown- Standing in the Rain

This is the song we're using for our music video. Its an acoustic song that that could be put into the genre of:

-Acoustic
-Pop/Rock
-Alternative

We've started to get some ideas of where we'd like to film the video. Our video will have a narrative/story that relates to the song lyrics. We want to film on the beach, because it'll be a good place to contrast the lyrics. What we're going to try and do a mix of story (to create a narrative) and performance (popular with the rock genre).

NEXT POST: Storyboarding and look at other clever videos to songs I like :)

Music Video analysis

The music video i am analysing is Jesus he knows me, a song and video created by the group Genesis in 1991. The song, and group, are based in the pop/rock genre, a genre which uses music videos primarily to promote the songs they use, which is why they are normally performance based and may feature footage from gigs the band have done. However some videos, like this one, use a narrative and feature little performance of the song, except the singing the band members occasionally fit into the video's narrative flow. The band uses the video to illustrate the narrative of the song, that looks at paid for religion, known as 'televangelism'. In fact, at the time of release, two of these 'televangelist' were under investigation about the ways they got the public to send them money in return for 'financial success', or so they were told.

The lyrics of the song focus around the ideas of these televangelists being made up more like celebrities than preachers. It's also implys that maybe these people are not even religious and are just using religion as a way of making easy money. This is represented in the video by making the group (perticularly Phil Collins) seem to be living a luxury lifestyle while making occasional appearances on TV shows and in magazines in order to keep himself known to the public. Lines like "Won't find me practising what i'm preaching, won't find me making no sacrifice" are sung while the main characters are shown relaxing in a luxurious setting, creating a video narrative to the song's lyrics as they are used. As the video is used as a narrative, its important for it to keep up with the music and keep a general pace with the song.

The video itself focuses mainly on the three members of the group, who are playing characters. Close ups are used frequently on them, as a way of establishing the group despite them not strictly performing the song. By playing different roles, it allows the group to seem more fun and down to earth than a true performance of the track would.

The video uses no sexual ideas in the notion of looking, but strongly uses other forms of media. TV screens, magazines and billboards are used in the video as if the story is real life as opposed to a music video. This is especially evident at the end of the film when Collins' character invites the 'viewers' to put their hands on the screen to be 'healed'. Using these ideas highlights the idea of religion in the media and how its now creating opportunities for wannabe celebrities to make some quick money.

The video makes no direct references to other music videos but uses one or two play on words in reference to the group. In the video, a banner appears reading "Genesis 3:25" which sounds like its referring to a verse from the bible. It is in fact the group's name(Genesis), number of members in Genesis (3) and the amount of years they had been together at the time (25). By writing it to seem like a bible verse reference, it fits perfectly with the religious tones in the video.

The music video is a mixture of performance, concept and narrative:

• 20% Performance- No instruments are used, but the group do still sing along to the majority of the song.
  
• 20% Narrative- The video does illustrate certain parts of the lyrics, but does sometimes keep it more general, especially during the chorus
  
• 60% Concept- The whole concept of religion in the media and 'televangelists' is strongly used throughout the video, shown in various ways and forms.

As a usual pop/rock video, it doesn't meet up to the normal amount of performance from this genre. However, with strong concepts and narrative taken from the lyrics, it still makes the video an entertaining and well presented way to put the song to video.

Music Videos

Pop/Rock

Most music videos that are considered Pop or Rock videos will usually feature the group performing their song. This can be done in several different ways:

-The group together performing the song with their instruments (e.g The Beatles-Paperback Writer)
-The group acting for the video with various references back to the performing of the song (e.g Madness-Baggy Trousers)

Some videos also will just have the group perform the vocals rather than the music aswell (e.g Genesis-Jesus he knows me) while some videos may only use one or two instruments as opposed to the whole band (e.g Oasis-Don't look back in anger).

Several music videos also use the lyrics to make a story or theme for their video (e.g Jesus he knows me uses the idea of 'preachers' and making money from organised religion). Some music videos, however will relate very few, if any, lyrics and just be used as a promotional film with the song as its soundtrack (e.g Arctic Monkeys- Flourescent Adolescence)