The 'LOOK'

To prepare for the look of the video, I did a bit of research into the image portraid by current Girl Synthpop artists. I looked at artists such as Little Boots, Alyson Goldfrapp, Aurevour Simone, Lady Gaga and of course La Roux. I created an anotated collage of these images, highlighting key points which I could apply to my video in terms of costume, tone and look.

'Bulletproof' - La roux

The song we eventually choose after much discussion was 'Bulletproof' by La Roux. This song was popular and would be interesting to look at. Whilst choosing a song, I looked at many other artists such as 'Lady Gaga', 'Little Boots' and 'Alison Goldfrapp', all of whih fitted the genre but wern't that popular. 'Bulletproof' had only been reliced recently, so would be easily recognised by people from our demographic.

As well become clear, me and my group have come up with ideas completely different to the original video. We have carried on the weird and strange feel to the video, although we are representing it in a more real way.

Other Synthpop artists

Allyson Goldfrapp is one artist that really pushes the boundries and inspires creative 'strange' ideas that are typical of the genre.



This video by 'Little Boots' really demonstrates the idea of design and colour. The whole video is a palet of varying colours, plus the keyboard instrument plays a key role in the video.



'Poker Face' by Lady Gaga is a video that really demonstrates the image of the artist portrayed in the video. The idea of elaborate/ colourful costumes and wacky hair styles that change between shots.

Through all the videos there is quite a high production value - each video is slick, smooth and well produced. This could cause problems for us tackling this genre as we have no budget to achieve the same effect, however this could be a eature that makes our artist favourable, as they are more 'low budget' compared to others.

Our chosen genre for our music video

After long and careful discussion with my group, we have all decided we are going to look at the genre of Synthpop - In particular girl Synthpop - as it is a different genre which will expand our creativity, and it is currently quite popular in the music world. Bands like La Roux and Lady Gaga are topping the charts, and so will be quite popular with our target audience (older teenagers and young adults of both genders).

Low budget video analysis

Today I had a look at a selection of low budget videos to help me develop and expand my ideas. Seeing these videos made it clear to me the possibilities avalable with little or no budget. The final results are still just as good as any other video. Above is my analysis of these videos.

Exapmple of low budget videos

Powerpoint and Peer Evaluation

After all groups in the class has completed their analysis, we all swaped videos and looked over each others notes and powerpoints. My group and others were critical of what had been said about each video and helped to build on our knoledge of music videos and creative ideas.

Powerpoint

Applying theories to a selected music video

To explore the concept of continuity and montage editing further, I was asked to analyse a selected music video and comment on the continuity and montage editing used.Along with the help of my group we managed to come up with a number of points from the video for 'Sugar Water' by 'Cibomatto'.

Continuity

- One continuous shot troughout (simple)
- Each character is followed through a narrative
- Chronological (time) order
- No elaborate locations used, 3 main ones

Montage

- Interesting choice of effects (split screen, reverse shot)
- Abstract (Characters are in reverse in a split screen)
- Right hand split screen mirrored
- Messages for the audience ("You Killed Me")
- One long stedicam shot, with many different angles used throughout (sometimes close up, sometimes midshot)

Godwin's Theorys

Andrew Godwin's theories concerns the lyrics and how they are portrayed in a music video. These include:

Amplification: Visual narrative that creates new levels of meaning without contradicting the lyrics. The meaning comes across through the visuals.

Illustration: Visual narrative that tells the story of the lyrics in a literal way

Disjuncture: The visual narrative contradicts, or goes against the lyrics of the song (the visuals and lyrics do not match)

Bordwell and Thompson's catagories of editing

According to the theory set down by Bordwell and Thompson, there are 4 main types of editing: Rhythmic, Spacial, Graphic and Temporal.

Rhythmic: This concerns how long or short a shot is (the duration)

Spatial: This concerns Mise-en-scene and how an object is placed in the frame

Graphic: To do with Mise-en-scene and continuity

Graphic match: Links shots through similar graphics

Graphic continuity: A main idea (centre of interest) that is constant throughout the shots

Graphic Discontinuity: Juxtaposition of the main idea(centre of interest)

Temporal: This concerns the time of the film/ video - Chronological? Like a film?

Montage and continuity editing

We have began to look at the two main types of editing: Montage and Continuity. Continuity is the type of editing most commonly used in Hollywood movies, where editing follows a storyline. There are few jumps in the narative. However Montage is the complete opposite, where lots of different shots and clips are mixed together. In this style, the narrative can switch location, costume, or be just completly random.

Different genre analysis

From this questionare different genres emerged - Rock, Disco, Rap/Hip Hip, and Easy listning. From these genres I exracted 3 specific areas to invesigate closer - Hard Rock, Disco and Easy listning. As the table above shows, I watched and analysed 3 videos in each genre, picking out key features.

• Hard Rock - Was mostly to do with being on stage, included vibrant costumes and instruments
• Disco - Usually shot in diserted locations and in dance clubs. Leather Jackets and flaired trousers would be warn and the video would be very danced based.
• Easy listning - Normally quite colourful, and in tasteful, abstract locations. Very abstract in editing with very few props.

Results

After conducting my questionair I came up with some interesting results. By far the most popular genre was some sort of rock music, ranging from Rock ballads to slightly stronger artists like 'Hadouken'. Another popular genre was Rap/ Hip hop. However, this result was mostly from the younger generations. Older generations said they prefered more easy listning records like Tony Bennett. Middle aged people from around 40 years old had a much wider taste in music. They all said they didn't have a prefered genre, although some seemed to lean towards classic rock genres and dance track artists such as the Bee Gees and Micheal Jackson. CDs and Downloads were both popular ways of obtaining music across generations.

Questionaire

To begin our research and planning stage, I had to do an investigation into what kind of music people liked to listen to, and whether or not people liked to watch music videos. To do this I designed a questionaire investigating these two areas. I then gave this questionaire out to a wide age range, and to people of both genders. I could then compare the results and investigate firther into a specific genre.Most of the people I gave the questionnaire to were representative of my target audience - 11-18 year olds. However I did ask older people what they like to listen to as well so I could maybe try and get more people interested in my audience and possibly widen my demographic age.

Advanced Portfolio

For our A2 coursework, we have to create a music video package consisting of a video, DVD cover and ... . Me and my group wanted to do something different, away from the popular choices of RnB and indie rock. We also wanted a song and a genre that would appeal to a wider demographic. I made the suggestion of doing the genre of 'Synth pop', which in recent years has been becoming more popular.