Here is a general idea of artists that we have thought about using. Most of these are bands with an indie style, this is the style that we want our main character to have. Most of these images are shot on the street, this is a location that we are defiantly going to use, baring a few of the artists they are mainly dressed in black or darker colours. This could be reflective of the genre, or maybe the song that are shooting the video, this is something that we will have to consider if our song is reflective or about loss we will have to dress our character in darker colours to reflect the mood.
The first thing we needed to decide was a song. We brainstormed ideas of potential artists, we wanted a song that had a storyline that we could develop. Some of the artists we started looking at were:
Scouting for Girls- James Bond and Need a Holiday
Coldplay- Scientist
Oasis- Lyla
The Rifles
Plan B- Hard Times
The Script- For the first time
As a group we all liked the song 'Hard Times' by Plan B, the lyrics of the song made it so easy to visualize a potential video. We had the idea that the video would follow the main character throughout the day, portraying peoples struggles in life and how they can attempt to overcome them. Plan B Hard Times. There is no video for this song which could be seen as a positive or negative, people would have nothing to compare our video to but also we could not take inspiration from the official music video.
Through the hard times, people say that you gotta be strong Through these hard times, people say you gotta keep going on Through the hard times, people try and kick you when you're down Through these hard times, don't it always seem like there's never anyone around to help you when you're strung out?
(Through these hard times) When you're falling out, no one seems to care (Through these hard times) They just run you down, tell you that life isn't fair, no.
Another plus point of the song is that everyone can relate to it, everyone experiences hard times in their life, so they can relate to the lyrics, if our audience can not relate to our video then why will they watch it. We were imagining the video being shot in London with the main character walking around and on his way seeing people who are having a 'hard time'. We could also throw in the characters personal experiences via flashbacks.
From the very start we decided we wanted a song that was not well known and from an artist who people did not really know. We felt that throughout our video people would be constantly recognizing Plan B's voice, taking away the reality from the video. We decided as a group that we wanted our video looked as if it could be on MTV, and not as if we'd just chosen our favourite artists and made a video. So back to the drawing board we went.
After much deliberation, we decided on our group. It was Adam Ralph, Matt Gutteridge and I, the group works well as we all have similar tastes in music.
We knew that we would have to make a music video but we had to decide which two of the ancillary tasks we will be doing. It was a pretty simple decision that we all agreed on the two that are highlighted. Below is our brief.
A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
a website homepage for the band;
a cover for its release as part of the digipak (CD/DVD package);
a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).
I want the music video that we produce to be current, so I decided to look through a current single, Wretch ft Josh Kumra- Don't Go. I was watching the video and after 27 secs I saw this shot.(picture right)The reflection in the water is a good shot to symbolize a reflective mood and a unique way of showing that the main character in a shot without using a simple medium shot.
Here is another shot from the same video, this is a good shot to show a coming together of two people, instead of just having a shot of them jumping into each others arms. This would be a good shot to use if a couple were breaking up as you could have the hands moving apart. Then at the end of the video if the two characters get back together the hands could re unite.
This next point is a transition, I came across it when searching for a shot of the sun rising in the video Watch the Sun Come Up- Example. This transition is one of the best transitions I have come across when looking through music videos. Throughout the video a cartoon affect is used for transitions, this transition starts at 43 secs and ends two seconds later. Example is shot walking up to buildings which are in normal colour and stature. They are then transformed into a black and white cartoon.(see right). The buildings then fold up until a flat shape and then turns into the sea. This cartoon is then wiped so the white cartoon changes to normal sea. (see left) This shot on the right, is an effective way to show time passing, the shot works and also keeps the continuity of the video. Rather than showing the man shaving from start to finish its shows three way split screen.
Conventions of Music Videos He stated that music videos started to focus on the main artist, via close ups. This can be seen in the video 'Its Raining Men', in which Geri Halliwell is highly sexualised. The video also includes extreme close ups of Geri, she is often pictured touching her body as highlighted by these screen grabs taken from the video. All these shots contribute to the explicit nature of the video this places all the foucs on the artist in an attempt to promote the artist and raise their profile.
Goodwin also stated that key to most videos was voyeurism. This the 'notion of looking', this is created in videos by people looking through windows, but in many videos showing an establishing shot of a window and then a zoom into the house. The video that I have previously analysed 'Stan' has many examples of voyeurism, whether that be the numerous posters on the wall of Eminem or the first shot in the video of the window, so it makes the audience feel as if they are looking in. Goodwin stated that in most videos there is voyeuristic treatment of the female body as seen in 'Its Raining Men'. Other Conventions
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band). genre characteristics 2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). 4. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc). E.g 'Jump' Girls Aloud is linked with Love Actually. (See right) the video for this song has many reference to the film, here is one.
This is the music video that I am going to be analysing, it is a collaboration between Eminem and Dido. In which an obsessive fan called Stan is letting his fantasy relationship with Eminem take over his relationship with his pregnant girlfriend, who is played by Dido.
The genre of the video is hip hop, some of the general characteristics of this are seen in this music video. Mainly it is the element of rap that puts it into this category with Eminem rapping the whole song, with Dido coming in for the chorus.
The weather is representative of the mood, this is known as a pathetic fallacy, also the establishing shot through the window creates a sense of looking for the audience The opening line of the song from Dido is 'my tea has gone cold', this is reflective of the mise en scene which is very dark and cold, mirroring the tension between Stan and his girlfriend. But before we hear this lyric we see Stans frustration at his girlfriend calling him 'Stanley' and his physicality towards her. He man handles her, also pointing at her telling her were to stand, this suggests that he is in control of her. His facial expression is one of anger and he leaves her on her own in the toilet and storms out. She then goes onto say and 'if I could it would all be grey', the mention of the colour grey is defiantly reflected in the colour scheme of the set. Grey can be described as the stage her and stan are in their relationship. On the shot that I have highlighted is an aerial shot, which gives this a notion of looking, we as an audience are looking down on their relationship.
We see the obsessive nature of Stan, with the posters all around his wall, he then sings, 'I'm your biggest fan' and 'I got a room full of your pictures man'. This is achieved by a pan across the room which highlights the amount of posters that Stan has. This highlights his freakish love for Eminem and how he is letting it take over his own life to the point, he puts his feelings for Eminem before his girlfriends'. It should be noted that the posters are all in black and white, in this screen shot Eminem is also looking which contributes to the notion of looking.
He even blames the post office for him not receiving his letters, even this shows how delusive he is, he cannot imagine his idol not returning his mail.
This image represents how he has mentally replaced his girlfriend with Eminem, if the audience were unclear of how obsessed he was with Eminem this picture highlights it.
But we then see that his mail is lost by the post office, we believe that Stan is making excuses for Eminem, but in reality we see that his mail is actually lost. This puts us as an audience on edge, because we know that Stan is frustrated and violent towards his girlfriend because Eminem is not mailing him back. So when we see this we are aware of how stan will react when he gets another rejection, but this time its no Eminems fault. 'I think its f*cked up how you don't answer fans'.
The music is very repetitive and dull, which concurs with the general mise en scene of the video. The pace of the music does not alter at all, it remains the same even when stan is driving at 90 mph you would expect the music to speed up, almost a climax but it stays at a consistent pace. Even when stans mood changes, for example, when he is at the concert and is watching his hero Eminem perform the music is steady paced as it is when he is about to drive of the bridge.
"Stan" is the third single from The Marshall Mathers LP, by rapper Eminem featuring Dido. It peaked at number one in the United Kingdom and Australia. It is also included on Curtain Call: The Hits, performed with Eminem and Dido as well track 17 on Curtain Call: The Hits as a live Performance from the 2001 Grammy awards featuring Elton John. The song was produced by The 45 King and Eminem, and uses a slightly modified break from Dido's "Thank You" as its base sample. The track also samples the opening lines of "Thank You" as its chorus. Coincidentally, both songs were released as singles in late 2000. Stan has been called one of Eminem's best songs and is considered one of his signature songs.
