Music Video

Music Videos

Music videos are videos that accompany songs, originally made to promote bands in the later half of the 20^th century.

The definition of music video is a little loose –

A film or video rendition of a recorded song, often showing the musicians performing or showing images that illustrate the lyrics or the mood of the song.

Music videos can be made for artistic and promotional reasons, and is a very popular way of getting music across to bands.

The first music video is usually disagreed upon, as there is not a simple answer. The Beatles movie Hard Day’s Night. It might be a movie, but if a music video is a video promoting and accompanied by a song, then the movie is also a music video. This came out in 1964.

One early video that shows a band playing music is Bessie Smith’s St.Louis Blues in which came out in 1929, and was shown in early cinemas until 1932.

Musicals led to music videos in some ways, with text appearing at the bottom of the screen to encourage the audience to join in, like lyrics. These were called Screen Songs.  These could be seen as a music video.

Disney’s Fantasia of 1940 was an animated film that was based around classical music. Whether or not this promotes the movie is debatable. 

Putting a song over a video wasn’t new to The Beatles, in fact people had been doing it for a while, but The Beatles Hard Day’s Night was one of the first videos to fall under a clear definition of music videos.

This is the problem with the definition of music videos. It’s very vague.

MTV

MTV was launched on August 1st, at 12:01 AM. MTV was a platform for artists to share music accompanied by a video. MTV stands for music television and was a major part of the history for music videos. The first music video to be aired on MTV was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles.


The song predicted that video would kill radio. They were wrong, but not far off. Most of us prefer video, but listen to radio when watching video isn't practical, like in cars.

MTV was responsible for the new, changing face of music videos at the time. For the first time artists realized that by making a music video, they were advertising their songs and making more money. Artists could brand their band. MTV had trouble keeping the channel busy with enough music videos, so bands that were previously unheard of would make music videos for a chance to appear on the show.

List of Influential Music Videos

Peter Gabriel and his video Sledgehammer (1986) was an iconic music video. It wasn't just a video showing him performing the song. It was a stop-motion video full of abstract effects that people wouldn't forget. It was produced by Aardman Animations, a company famous for the Wallace and Gromit series. Peter Gabriel lay under a glass sheet for 16 hours in order to create the video. To this day it remains the music video earning the most awards, totaling 9. The reason it became so important is because it wasn't just a performance, it was something you could watch with the sound down and still find interesting.

Herbie Hancock and his music video Rockit (1983) was a strange music video that involved several robots moving in time to the music. The video earned 5 music awards, including Best concept video and best special effects. It has been parodied and referenced many times, on the Simpsons for example.

List of Influential Singers Music Videos
Michael Jackson was huge at his peak fame. His music video for his song Thriller was a 13 minute long narrative that involved incredible dancing, and a very high budget of $500,000 (for the time). It was first shown in cinemas before movies, which just shows the changing purpose of music videos.
Micheal Jackson, using music videos popularized the dance move the robot, and the moonwalk, which he gave the name to. Without his music videos, Micheal Jackson wouldn't have been branded as the "King of Pop"or be as successful as it is today

Michael Jackson's Bad was very important part of his career. It rebranded him as a rule breaker and a rebel. In the video Michael Jackson performs a long and very complicated dance sequence, featuring a real gang. In the video MJ is dressed in all-black leather. In the long version of the video, there is a small plot where MJ plays a teenager who has come back from his private school, and the gang question whether he's really bad or not.

Michael Jackson's Black or White video was another re-branding of himself. Just 4 years after his Bad video, MJ stars in a music video themed on racial stereotypes and tolerance. MJ dresses in white clothing and dances the traditional dances of certain countries with people dressed in traditional clothing of their countries. Towards the middle, the children are shown to shout "I ain't gonna spend my life being a color" referring to not wanting to grow up with racism. The video features Macauley Cawkin, the child star of Home Alone and Home Alone 2. Towards the end of the video several black and white people of different ages morph into each other symbolizing how we are all the same. In the extended edition, Michael Jackson destroys a car and some glass windows. Later this was censored by adding offensive words, like KKK rules, in order to not promote violence, and instead symbolize destroying racism. After the music video was released Micheal became an important figure for breaking down racial barriers.

The purpose of music videos
Music videos were used to brand artists for a certain look or style. Musicians used music videos, songs and clothes to get their look to as many people as possible. Madonna was one of the first musicians to really reinvent herself every few years, and other musicians followed. Viral videos are a common way of creating interest in your band. They spread through people. You may not be able to think of a music video that you have spread to another person, but think back to the Harlem Shake or Psy's Gangnam Style, and you might change your mind.

Influencial directors of music videos

Andrew Huang created the music video for bjork's stonemilker song. While it was a simple video, Andrew Huang was one of the first directors to use 360 degree video in a music video. 360 degree video means that the video was filmed from every angle horizontally. The user on a tablet, mobile or google chrome can move the video around to see bjork from multiple angles. The video manipulates time to show bjork moving around a beach.

Kazuaki Seki and Damian Kulash, Jr.  Worked with Ok Go in order to create a music video that ran with no edits, in one take. Most Ok Go music videos are shot in just one take. However, the music video was filmed using a drone controlled remotely. The video was filmed over 4 days, at half the speed of the song. It took 44 takes and featured 2,300 people.

 

Romain Gavras is best known for his music video for M.I.A.'s song Born Free. The song was made more for the music video than the song itself. This is an example of the changing purpose of music videos. The video tells us about the struggles happening in Sri Lanka but in the context of our own community. It shows gingers being hunted.

http://www.houstonpress.com/music/the-25-most-influential-music-videos-of-all-time-6763497
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV
http://www.highsnobiety.com/2015/06/30/best-music-videos-azealia-beyonce-pharrell/

October feedback

You are making steady progress, listen intently and understand tasks. As we are moving quickly it is essential that you carry on work outside of the lesson in extended learning activities.

Under direction you work effectively but the nature of the subject requires some independent study to gain merit and distinction criteria.

You need to identify the principles of video editing and explain how you have demonstrated understanding of these in your own short films.

Principles of video editing

Parallel editing

Parallel editing is the technique of cross-cutting two or more scenes that happen together but in different locations. In this clip above, the people with guns are storming a house, while the main character is getting ready to confront them. The scenes are happening in different places but at the same time. The scene appears to be in similar locations, but ends with the FBI running in and realising they are at the wrong house. The viewer was led to believe the house the FBI stormed was the characters house, until this scene. Tension is built up high at this point, until the house is discovered to be empty. From a simple scene of the FBI storming a random house, the use of parallel editing has implied that this house was the main characters, therefore making the scene much more exciting.


Montage
A montage is a sequence of shots cut together in a composition to create action. They are usually fast paced and are great for showing the audience what's happening fast. Take any Rocky training montage for example, instead of showing everything happening up until the end of the montage, scenes and scenes of lifting weights, running to places and working hard, they showed a simple few shots of Rocky doing his training. Time seems to pass much quicker, yet you get the feeling that Rocky has been training for a long time. The downside of montages is that they are not great for making you feel anything emotionally. The video below is a comedy montage - but if you listen to the lyrics, they make some accurate and important points. For example - "Show us the passage of time, that's when you need a montage".

Manipulating diagetic time and space
Manipulating time and space is very important for editing. If a movie follows chronological order without skipping any time between shots at all, then it does not manipulate time and space. If there is one shot of somebody mixing something, and with no pause at all then is adding an ingredient, a cut has been made that manipulates diagetic time and space.

Our video shows Valentin falling asleep, he goes into a dream and is no longer in the classroom. He is in a room waking up. Valentin has moved without following chronological order in the composition.

MTV style editing

In this video we use MTV style editing, or "Post-Classical Editing". The idea behind this is lots of shots used for style over substance. The camera position will be changing constantly and be confusing to the viewer to create action. Post classical editing was notably used in City of God to create a manic fast paced film. Camera shots vary a lot through this kind of editing. Camera pans are used, close ups and extreme close ups are used, but establishing shots are often not used to keep the audience in a panic.

MTV style editing became popular from the early 1980s MTV music videos, where shots lasted around 3 seconds. It has uses other than style, too. Take for example The Bourne Identity (2002) starring Matt Damon. The director faced the challenge of making Matt Damon's action shots look like he was very experienced in fighting - Bruce Lee kind of experienced. By using lots of close up shots containing fast paced action, the viewers are disoriented and are given so little information about what's going on, so Matt Damon looked very experienced.

Jump cuts

Jump cuts are just like your regular cut, the only difference being that jump cuts manipulate time, allowing a character to move from one position to another, without continuity. This has universal uses. It is often used in youtubers, for example Ray William Johnson. It can be used to make characters spontaneously disappear, or to speed up time. Jump cuts generally should be hidden, but are sometimes used for visual effect. Above is an example of the use of jump cuts for visual effect. Time is sped up for dramatic effect.

Continuity editing
Continuity editing is the most used form of editing. It relies on following certain rules in order to not confuse the audience. It allows shots to flow into each other, and helps the narrative to have structure. The rules are;

• Re/Establishing shots - A long shot or extreme long shot that shows the background of where the scene is going to take place. This is important, because without enough information on the scene, the audience is guessing what is around them and is therefore distracted.
• Shot/ reverse shot - Three shots alternating between characters in the form of original shot into opposite shot into the original shot again. This is typical during a conversation.
• 30 degree rule - The angle between two shots put together cannot be lower than 30 degrees. By being lower than this, the audience is again confused. This is similar to the 180 degree rule below.
• Match on action - Two shots of different framings showing the same action, cut together to make it seem to continue uninterrputed
• Eyeline match - If two shots of peoples eyes looking at each other are shown together, the characters must be facing opposite angles.

The last continuity rule that must be followed is below.

180 degree rule
The 180 degree rule is one of the most important rules not to break. Two camera shots must not be bigger than 180 degrees apart, or the audience will become confused, because it reverses the shot essentially, if character one was on the left and character two was on the right, breaking the 180 degree rule causes the characters to be on flipped sides of the screen. This rule should be avoided from breaking, but there are ways to break it without there being too much impact. For example, showing a shot on the 180 degree line before a shot that would break the rule fixes the problem. Another way to fix the problem is to pan over the line before having your shot.

Development of video editing (part 2)

Timeline of film part 2
1941
Orson Welles created the movie War of the Worlds. Based on a novel by H.G Wells, War of the worlds simulated a news broadcast and several eyewitness accounts on an alien invasion and attack on New Jersey. This looked so real that it fooled many people - people didn't know the movie was fiction. He also created the movie Citizen Kane, a narrative that ends with the much discussed "Rosebud" scene.

1979
Apocalypse Now

The intro to Apocalypse Now starts off with a jungle. Everything is peaceful, then a helicopter appears. Dust is kicked up by the helicopters and envelops the screen. Music - The End by The Doors. After around a minute of hearing the guitar playing, The Doors start singing in time to an explosion, then there is much more dust. The audience makes the assumption that.... There is a cut to a mans face having a smoke. He looks upwards, and on his right you see a somewhat transparent ceiling fan. It spins around as a helicopters wings flash in and out, so you make the connection that the man seeing the ceiling fan reminds him of helicopters in a war. Then we see more and more helicopters, and hear them flying. You see a transparent cut of fire, and more helicopters over the man with his possesions lying face up in a bed. He is staring. You see an almost empty glass, so you know he poured it, but you know he drank most of it too.

2002
City of God is a film about Rio de Janeiro and its poverty stricken areas. It is a very influential film because it used the MTV style editing to create its action scenes.

If you watch the opening scene, notice that it is not easy to find a scene where the camera isn't moving. shots don't usually last more than three seconds, and the entire sequence is disorientating for the viewer. This is the style of MTVs music videos. It ignores continuity in favour of style. If you watch the scene, you can also notice that there is no establishing shot. You can't tell where exactly they are, because you only get small parts of the surroundings in the background. Around 2:58, we get a re-establishing shot. It is used to slow down the pace of the action, notice how the scene appears in slow motion. From one shot used that was not in the style of MTV editing, the pace has completely changed.

Research Log

I skimmed and scanned three secondary sources to find out more about continuity and the 180 degree rule, the concept that reversing the direction an object is moving/ reversing the fourth wall will cause confusion to the viewer, and make a cinematic harder to follow.  I also found out about continuity rules such as eyeline match and shot reverse shot or reverse shot.

I annotated these articles and found out about the 180 degree rule, and how not to break it. In sports coverage, confusing the audience is avoided by telling the audience that the camera shot is at a different angle through audio or video. This is only an option in video that does not require full immersion like a movie. The 180 rule sometimes has to be broken, so the best option is to use a shot taken on the line itself, to give the audience an idea of the environment around them, or using a pan to explain exactly how the shot is changing. I learned about the eyeline match rule, the idea that if a closeup of somebodies face is on screen, if it is followed by another close up the eyeline must line up with each other to keep the audience’s eyes in the same place – it is less confusing for the audience that way.

The purpose of my research is to learn more about filming techniques and how to avoid disorientating or confusing the audience. This is in contrast to MTV style or post-classical video editing, with the intention of having action filled fast paced shot changes where the audience does not fully understand everything that is happening. The 180 degree and other continuity rules are important for my future video making.

Secondary Source	Relevance to my project
DV Film-making by Ian Anderson	This source had a couple of pages explaining the 180-degree rule, and why it should be followed.
Mediacollege.com/wideo/editing/transition/reverse-cut.html	More on the 180 degree rule with an explanation of what to do if crossing the line and breaking the rule can’t be avoided.
Learnaboutfilm.com/film-language/sequence/180-degree	This website goes into detail with examples on many continuity rules, like the eyeline match rule, and shot reverse shot.
Film 110 http://film110.pbworks.com/w/page/12610182/Continuity%C2%A0Editing	Goes into different continuity rules that should be followed, low detail, but tells you exactly why rules should be followed better than any other website
Mastering Film http://masteringfilm.com/dynamic-and-continuity-editing-2/	Sheds light on a different kind of editing from continuity – dynamic. It tells us when to use either and the advantages of either.
http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hitchcock/pages/editing.html	The best part about this source is not only does it contain loads of information, it gives us a clear example of each of them.
Continuity errors Blogspot http://loufromthebloc.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/continuity-editing.html	This blog points out the common errors that can be made.

The development and principles of film and video editing

Timeline of Film

1888
Thomas Edison invented a camera that worked smilar to how we view stop motion animation. We see a moving video, but all we are really seeing is hundreds of images moving so fast that we see motion. Thomas Edison's device also projected images. It was called the Kinetoscope. He was the first to patent this technology.

The Kinetograph

The Kinetoscope projected a moving picture through a viewing windows. It worked by shining light on frames on a spinning wheel. The light would pass through the holes of these frames and create an image.

1895

The Lumiere Brothers thought they could sell film technology to a new generation. Their camera was called the Cinématographe and often took long takes with no edits, since the cameras were so big and bulky and hard to carry. It also projected images. 

1903

Georges Melies creates the film A Trip to the Moon. George Melies has changed film forever in the ways he pushed boundaries, and created the origins of editing. He played with diagetic time and space and used it to tell a story. George was both a magician and worked in theatre to achieve the effects he used in his films.

It was in this year also than Edwin Porter created the film The Great Train Robbery. It used cross cutting, and was one of the first films to incorporate continuity editing.

1915

DW Griffith created the film Birth of a Nation. It was such an influential film, because it was filled with USA propaganda. It contained scenes involving the KKK and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

1925

Eisenstein created the first montage cut, a collection of action sequences cross cut together to emphasis an event happening  Eisenstein created the film Strike, a film about the Russian civil war. Like DW Griffith, this film is very propaganda based. Eisenstein also created the Odessa Steps scene, a montage of people running down the stairs, cross cut with a pram rolling down stairs slowly. Without the montage cutting, the scene is not interesting, but together they become much more.

Sergei Eisenstein

Lev Kuleshov was a filmmaker that proved editing can drastically change a film. He used what we now describe as the Kuleshov Effect. He used an emotionless shot of his face and placed it next to shots of various objects. People would then attribute them to each other. The emotionless face of Kuleshov was next to a shot of a plate of food, making him look hungry. Kuleshov was also next to a shot of a dead woman, which makes him look mournful. While the shot of Kuleshov had stayed the same, the shot he was next to had changed, which changed the overall meaning of the film. The Kuleshov Effect is the effect of deriving more meaning from two shots interacting than one shot on its own. Kuleshov made movies from 1910 to the 1920's