Planning schedule

This is the planning schedule that we all agreed on for us to film our music video. 

Wallwisher

Music video success criteria

Ways to see whether music videos are successful.

1. Word of mouth 
2. Number of views on YouTube
3. Newspaper Articles/TV Reports
4. How many times shown on television
5. Amount of publicly
6. Downloads (illegal/legal)
7. Charts (Itunes/Radio)
8. CD Sales
9. Last word

There has been a massive switch in the importance of YouTube from television channels such as MTV. Since we now live in a digital age, a majority of the younger generation are watching videos online.  Most viewing of music videos appears to be online sites such as YouTube.

Director - Jamie Thraves

Jamie Thraves

• He made short films at university
• He used award-winning short films as a 'calling card' to get a 'foot in the door' with the video production company factory films.
• He began shooting three very low budget music videos that cost about £5000 each

This is how the process works:

1. A commissioner from a record label sends a track to 5-10 directors.
2. The directors then each submit a treatment (This stage is unpaid)
3. The director who has submitted the best treatment is then commissioned to make the video. Only then is the director paid.

As can be seen for many directors in the business it is a precarious existence where their livelihood is dependent on each commission.

Jamie Thraves submitted treatments for his two best known videos and each was accepted.

1. Radiohead - Just - £100,000 budget - shot in 3 days
2. Coldplay - the scientist - £200,000 budget - shot in 3 days
3. most recent video - Japanese popstars - song for lisa - £20,000 - 2 days

Jamie has used the music videos to get into the film business.

He has so far shot three features:

• The low down
• The cry of the owl
• Treacle Jr

Jamies tips

Use the lyrics but try not to be too literal. Most importantly go with the emotion of the lyrics.

My favorite music video

My Favorite Music Video

My favorite music video is 'The Scientist' by Coldplay. 

This song is the second single from Coldplay's second album,' A Rush of Blood to the Head'. This song was built around a piano ballad and written by all the band members of coldplay collaboratively. This song reached number 10 in the charts in the UK and reached number 18 in the US on Billboard's modern rock tracks. This music video won three MTV Music Video Awards for the use of reverse narrative throughout the video. 

One of the main reasons for this music video being my favorite is the use of reverse narrative. I think it is used very well and shows skill and thought in the video. 

Another aspect I like is the fact that they have taken one sentence out of the lyrics and based the entire music video on this. These lyrics are 'take me back to the start' and therefore this is exactly what the music video does. It reverses him back and undoes what has happened so he ends up back at the start. 

The video shows us the story of him having a car crash and his girlfriend being killed. However due to the reverse narrative we only see what happened at the end. This builds up suspension as we listen to the lyrics and are left wondering what has happened and where he started off.

Preliminary Exercise - What did we learn

Production

• Take several takes of each position to perfect it. 
• Make sure the actor/actress who is miming, sings aloud so that the movement of the mouth is right.
• Don't leave time between takes as the more you keep doing it, the more into it you get and so the better it is.
• Film the whole song in one take so that bits can be easily taken out and used. 

Post production

• To vertically edit the layers
• To use 'toggle clip overlays' 'pen tool' and lock layers'
• To lock in and mark the music so that it keeps in place.#
• Remove the audio

This will help me with our real video as I now know short cuts and tools to use. I also know how to film correctly so that we can film all together and then go straight to editing without having to go back and forth due to missing parts. I think doing this will make me much more organised in the real thing as I know what to do properly. 

These are screenshots which we took whilst editing.

Preliminary task

This is our preliminary task. 

Digipak - Taylor Swift

This album seems very dream like and mystical. The images throughout the digipak all give this effect. The album cover shows Taylor Swift in a bright purple dress, flowing around her. This gives a mystical feel and gives the album a burst of colour. The font used is also used throughout. The curly, hand written font also keeps with the flowing theme. The back of the album uses another brightly coloured dress and bright colours painted around the edges. This painting is colourful and abstract matching the dream like feel. The CD itself has bursts of bright colours going from the middle outwards, spiralling around the CD. This has the mystical image that is used throughout. The whole cover is about movement, with swirling patterns with the painting and the dresses. 

This artist is similar to the artist we are using as she is also a guitarist and her music is the same genre. 

100 Greatest Music Videos 1

Michael Jackson - Thriller - 1

This video was directed by John Mondess and was one of the most expensive videos Michael Jackson had made. The video was based on the ideas of Michael Jackson as he was influenced by the film 'American Werewolf in London'. He wanted his video to be similar to this films themes. Michael Jackson's music video, like many of his other videos was more like a short story than a music video and so it was 15 minutes long. This video was first shown after midnight as no one had seen a music video like this before. 

100 Greatest Music Videos 2

Sledge Hammer - Peter Gabriel - 2

This music video was very popular and won nine MTV awards. This music video was full of animation. There was use of all sorts of different backgrounds and effects. Gabriel actually had to lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours whilst filming this video one frame at a time. One section was animated by Nick Park from Aardman Animations who did plasticine animation. 

100 Greatest Music Videos 3

A-Ha - Take on me - 3

This song was released a year before the video, however did not become popular until the video emerged. This music video consisted of 1400 drawings and it took three months to be made. The video was a mixture of real life and comic book style animation. This video was so creative and popular that it won an MTV Video Award in 1985. The music video starts with a woman reading a comic book in a cafe. A hand then reaches out and brings her into the comic book and she travels through the animated comic throughout the video. 

100 Greatest Music Videos 4

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody- 4

This song was number 1 in the music charts for 9 weeks. This song was also voted one of Britains favorite videos by a poll ITV performed.This video was made as Queen was on tour and so they couldn't perform on top of the pops.

100 Greatest Music Videos 5

Madonna - like a prayer - 5

This video was known for causing the most controversy than any other music videos. This song was religion related and involved Madonna singing in a church. She is singing to a statue of a black man which was suggested to be Jesus. This statue comes to life in the video and makes love to Madonna.  This raised a lot of religious politics. However it was insisted that the statue of the black man represented a deciple and not Jesus himself. Due to the amount of controversy that this video made, Pepsi pulled out of the £5 million deal they had. 

100 Greatest Music Videos 6

Robbie Williams - Rock DJ - 6

This music video was out when Robbie Williams was at the height of his career. The music video shows his well known personality as he sings in the middle of a disco stripping. This video caused a lot of controversy as the ending showed him stripping off his skin so he is just muscle. A lot of channels showed the video but cut it before the ending played. 

100 Greatest Music Videos 7

Michael Jackson - Billie Jean - 7 

This video launched Michael Jackson's career as a solo artist as he was known as a member of the Jackson 5 as a child star. This music video topped the US single chart for 7 weeks and promoted black people being involved in music videos played on MTV in the US.The music video was directed by Steve Barran. This video consisted of Michael Jackson dancing about the street using some improvised, some choreographed moves all done himself.