Notes on Goodwin's Theory

Goodwin's theory is based on eight core principals, most of which should be applicable to almost any music video. It is important that I study and learn these principals before I begin planning the music video which I will produce, as it will help to ensure that I include everything which is necessary in order to create a professional, cohesive product.

These eight principles are:

1. Links between lyrics and visuals (ie the visuals adding to the narrative which is described in the lyrics)



2. Links between the music and the visuals (but not necessarily supporting each other, as the links could be complimentary, contradictory or amplification)



3. Genre characteristics

3. The low angled shots on Jay-Z within the video for 99
Problems are a genre characteristic of hip-hop as they
make him appear aggressive and dominating

4. Intertextual references (for example mocking other music videos/films, or containing clips from a film which the song was featured in)



5. Notions of Looking (ie the objectification of women through the use of the male gaze theory)

5. There are several uses of the idea of notions of looking
in the video for Writing on The Wall by Plan B. 

6. Voyeurism (breaking the 4th wall, insight into the artists life etc)



7. Demands of the record label (making the artist represent themselves in a certain way for example)

By including Rick Rubin in the video for 99 Problems,
Def Jam are raising their status as a label
 

8. All music videos fit into one of three types - performance based, concept based and narrative based

8. Last Nite by The Strokes is an example of a performance
based music video, as it contains no recognisable narrative

By studying the principles of this theory I will now be able to analyse another music video and apply the theory to it, in order to prove how I need to apply the theory to my video as much as possible.

Animated Storyboard

This is the animated storyboard which I pieced together, with the ideas and drawings coming as a collaboration from all four members of the group. Whilst it is only for the first section of the song, it will be incredibly helpful when editing the music video as it gives us a better gauge of how each shot flows into the next, and where certain transitions should be used.

Music video factsheet notes

Purpose of a music video

A music video has many purposes, although the most obvious is to sell a product, namely the song which the video is for. However, music videos can also be used to market other products, such as the album which the video is featured on, or the film which the video makes intertextual references to. However, this is an unusual form of advertisement, as the audience gets to experience the whole song through the video, meaning they are being given a form of the product which they are potentially then going to later purchase. Whilst this wasn't a problem in terms of revenue in the pre-millenial digital age, it is a problem now as YouTube means that people can access the song and corresponding video wherever they are, meaning there is little need for them to purchase the song.
 

Fearing a loss in profit, most labels attempted to stop this, although efforts proved futile, meaning that labels such as Sony BMG now have a dedicated YouTube channel for their artists work. These videos then contain links to websites such as iTunes where the content can be purchased via download, which means that the music video can be used to sell the song, even if technology has made it less effective than it was 15 years ago. 

In addition to this, there is the VEVO YouTube service, which funds artists for uploading their videos by giving their record label a cut of the advertising revenue. As the view count on the video above (270,000,000 in November 2014), uploading a music video to VEVO gives it exposure to a larger audience. This is the best way to make music videos profitable in the new age, as otherwise there is a very small chance that the viewer is going to legally purchase the music, especially with YouTube ripping tools easily available online. 

Conventions in music videos

 

A convention which runs throughout almost all YouTube videos is movement being used to the rhythm of the song. This movement can be achieved through the movement of the camera, from editing to the beat, or from people in the video moving. In addition to this, a lot of music videos contain a narrative, with some crossing over to the point where they can be regarded as short films. This narrative will either match the lyrics of the song, or will be about a different theme which embodies the feel of the music. 

Another product which is sold through music videos is the band/artist themselves, as they may be featured performing, be in the form of lip-syncing or playing instruments. They may also be featured acting, playing characters outside of their usual persona. 

Some music videos contain references to other media, such as films, TV shows or current affairs. This is called intertextuality. This can either be due to the song being featured in a certain film, or in order to mock other artists, as Blink-182 did in their video for All The Small Things.

Genre and its impact on music video 

 

The majority of musical genres have characteristics associated with them, and this then extends into the music videos from this genre. These video characteristics include clothing and visual codes, such as props. One of the most notable and controversial genres of music video is hip hop, due to its conventions of gang culture, the objectification of women, drugs, alcohol, violence and cars. In terms of clothing, baggy clothing is usually worn, in order to reflect the chilled out style of music which is usually featured in the videos. The hypodermic needle theory suggests that displaying such a culture is likely to make fans of the genre try to live their lives in the same way, although the truth behind this has been widely disputed.

Other genres which contain instantly recognisable visual codes include punk (tight jeans, anarchist symbols, skateboarding, a sense of rebellion) and rock, which often features an element of live performance and the consumption of alcohol. 

By studying this factsheet, I have learned a great deal about how music videos are formulated and how important it is to ensure that we include multiple genre characteristics in order to make sure our audience can relate to it. 

Location Scouting

In order to ensure that we get as many potential locations to use as possible when filming our video, we have decided to split the locations into a category each to find. Below is a list of each of our categories, and then the pictures of various potential bedrooms which I believe we could include as part of our video. 

Me - Bedroom
Rhys - Woods (daytime)
Jack - Woods (nighttime, meaning there mustn't be any visible street lights or noise restrictions)
Calum - Lane and abandoned house

Potential bedroom locations found by me: 

Bedroom 1 (above) - I believe that this bedroom would be suitable as it is a good medium between being too large to be realistic, and too small to be able to effectively film in. However, it would need to be decorated in a way which reflects the theme of the song much better, as it currently seems to be too inviting and welcoming in order to connote the things which it needs to in order to be suitable for our video. 

Bedroom 2 (right and below) - This would be the easiest of the three bedrooms to film in, as it has a huge amount of space, meaning we could even set up two separate cameras in order to capture the action from separate angles to edit together. However, it could be seen as unrealistic as it is too large to conceivably be a teenagers bedroom, and it is also a source of a lot of natural light, which is likely to ruin the theme of darkness which we are attempting to capture in our video. 

Bedroom 3 (right and below) - This bedroom has a window which can be covered up in order to remove almost all of the natural light, allowing us to create the light setting as part of our mise-en-scene configurations. In addition to this, it is fairly plain (barring the wallpaper which would have to be covered over in order to not look completely out of place), which allows a lot of room for us to adapt it in order to work well with our video. This means that, with a few modifications to make it look more professional, this bedroom would be the most appropriate for the scenes of our music video which require a bedroom.

Investigating various locations we could potentially use allows us to get a much more effective final product from our video shoot, as it will show in the video that we have properly considered all of the locations in terms of practicality and representation.

 

Inital Notes on Music Artist Poster

Posters are used in order to advertise an upcoming release or concert by an artist, much in the same way that magazine adverts are used. However, a poster can be viewed by anybody who walks past it, whereas an advert can only be seen by those who have purchased the magazine, so it opens the artist up to a much wider exposure. The feel of a poster will usually present the artist and their music as ultra-appealing, as the majority of the people who will see the poster will not already be aware of the artist. Below are some examples of posters, and explanations as to why they are effective.



Death Cab for Cutie - This poster is advertising an upcoming concert, so will be placed in the area surrounding the venue. The imagery is effective as it plays on the name of the band, with "death" represented by the skeleton within the advert, "cab" shown by the fact that he is driving a taxi and "cutie" shown by the pink colours and the heart which the skeleton is holding. This clever imagery is likely to capture the attention of a passer-by, and connotes that the band regard their music as being a mixture of many different elements, as shown by the juxtaposition of such words.

In addition to this, there are many bright and clashing colours, such as pink, yellow, green and purple. This ensures that the poster doesn't blend into the background, and also suggests that the bands music is likely to be upbeat.



Queens of the Stone Age - This poster is presented in the style of a 1970s movie poster, with its background being a "queen" playing card, making a clever link to the name of the band in the same way that the Death Cab for Cutie poster does. In addition to this, its use of bright colours ensure that it stands out well amongst its surroundings. The text on it declares "Live! Here! Tonight!!!", which makes the prospect of going to see the band much more appealing, even though there is an element of sarcasm behind the whole poster. Overall, the poster has a sleazy, dated feel to it, which matches the music which the band plays.



The Strokes - This poster, which is also advertising tour dates, has its image focal point as a picture of each member of the band. This could connote that the band believe that their own image is as important to the tour dates selling as their music is. In addition to this, it is much less colourful than the posters for the other bands, with beige, black and red being the only colours which are featured. However, it does provide more information than the other posters do, as it gives websites which tickets can be purchased from as part of the main print, which is not included on either of the other posters. This means that whilst it may not be as eye catching, and doesn't tell as much about the band themselves, it is more likely to drive sales than the other posters, as it tells the potential fan where they can purchase tickets.

Analysing, comparing and contrasting these posters has shown me how artists are able to build up a persona through the use of imagery, which we will need to ensure we do when we make our music video and ancillary products.

Initial ideas on my own music video

Although we are yet to have decided on a song to do, I would personally like to do a video for an indie song. There are a number of reasons for this, such as:

• The bands are usually either unsigned or signed to an independent record label (where the word indie comes from) so there is a much larger chance of getting the agreement of the record company to make the video.
• The settings of the videos are often inner cities/suburbs, in order to make sure the bands aren't shown as having got too big for themselves. This is helpful because we will have very little, if any, money to make the music video with, so we need a setting which can be easily obtained.
• There are few genre characteristics, other than a DIY production quality, so we will still be able to make a video which differs largely from other videos within the genre.

Some initial ideas I have had is a video which splits between shots of the artist performing and them in their "day-to-day" life, as a common characteristic of indie videos is showing the artists as being ordinary people. Additionally, if we choose to make a video for an artist who we know personally, such as Rat Boy, then we will be able to get him to actually star in the video, which will result in a much higher quality of lip syncing.

Update: Since posting the first ideas which we had about the video, we have since decided on a song and a general theme which we want the video to have. The song is called Trials of the Past by SBTRKT, which I believe is a suitable song as it doesn't have an official music video, is by a British artist, and the record label, Young Turks, are easily contactable in order to gain permission to use their song.

 

In terms of initial ideas, we have decided that the video is going to have a psychological horror influence and to be filmed in black and white. We have also chosen various locations in which to film the video, including an abandoned house, a woods, and a bedroom. In terms of characters, we are only going to include a single male character, although his appearance will differ when he is playing the ghosts who are haunting him.

 

Filming Schedule

We have designated two days to the filming of our video, although we may need to find time a few weeks afterwards to re-shoot certain parts if we decide we have not captured footage which meets our high standards. 

Monday 27th October: We have planned for this to be the day that we take various establishing shots and to organise our props within the forest. We won't be filming any of the shots which contain our actor on this day, as he has already said he is unlikely to be able to make it. It will also give us a good chance to test out the lighting rig and ensure that there are no modifications which will need to be made before the bulk of the shooting begins. We plan to begin filming at about 3pm and to finish at about 8pm, as this will give us time to get a good collection of both day and night shots, and to experiment with the lighting rig.

Thursday 30th October:  This is the day where the bulk of the filming will take place, as our actor is available for the whole day. We plan to begin shooting at around 12pm and to finish in the early hours of the morning, as we need to record a lot of footage, and to ensure that we do each shot multiple (4 or 5) times to make sure that we have the largest possible amount of footage to make the finished product from. By creating our lighting rig, we will be able to continue filming in the night, which will work to our advantage as it will show a noticeable difference between the beginning and the end of our video. 

Monday 3rd November: On this day we will begin editing at my house, using Final Cut Pro X in order to add special effects to the shots before we take them into school to string them together using Final Cut Express.

4th November-30th November: Most days during this period will be spent editing the video, with a lengthy editing process being required in order for us to make the finished product to the quality which it needs to be. After this we will be finished with the video part of the coursework meaning we will be able to focus on making a digipack and magazine advert which are of similar quality.