Music Video Research

Emily Wyatt from Polydor Records came to talk to us about her job as well as the making and distribution of a music video. She was the commissioning editor for Polydor records which basically meant that she would supervise the making of a video and would choose and work closely with the directors that were producing the videos. 

Even though Emily was in charge of the production of the music video one thing that she didn't get to decided was the budget. She told us that with big artists for example Ellie Goulding the average budget was about £25,000 plus while unknown artists budget for a video was normally about £6,000. Since the budget isn't that big it would mean that either unknown or first time directors would take on the project  and the video would be mostly performance based because it is cheaper, quicker and easier to pull off with a small budget.

She told us that when writing up the treatment she would normally keep it very brief because this is what is used to sell the concept of the video to the artists  and they normally dot have very much time therefor the treatment is done with few words and a lot of pictures.

Emily said that the most important place of exhibition for the music video is online. For example they use VIVO to show their videos. This was they can target the people that they want to watch and monitor how many people watch the video, at what point they may switch it off and other music videos the people watched which can all help them while reproducing another video. Although what might be the most important aspect of exhibiting the video on YouTube is that if the video get alto of hit the song is going to encourage radio airplay which means more people becoming aware of the artist and new track. 

A recent video that Emily told us she had done was Ellie Goulding's video Burn. They shot it in just one day on an airstrip. 

Music Video Timeline

Music Video Treatment

Music Video Idea Presentation

Music Video Idea #3

My third song would be Bang Bang by Will.I.Am. He is well-known for being the founding member of The Black Eyed Peas although he is also well known for being a songwriter, entrepreneur, voice actor and DJ. This song Bang Bang was written for the film The Great Gatsby with actor Leonardo DiCaprio. My idea for the video would be set in the studio where there would be 2 sets. One black and one white. I think its effective if you move between different scenes and the props and the people are constantly changing which there is the main guy who is just lip-syncing. I think this song is great and a music video like this would be extremely effective. 

 

I think it is hard to find an artist or band which is similar to Will.I.Am because of the fact that he has done so much to do with the music industry but in so many fields. For example he was one of the lead singers in The Black Eyed Peas an extremely worldwide famous group and when they broke up he became a very famous single performer which i think many artists struggle to do after they have made there fame for being well known in a group. He is known for his electronic music aswell as being on a judge on The Voice. 

Music Video Idea #2

My second idea for the music video is a song called Everybody Talks by Neon Trees. I think the feel of this song is very retro so therefor my idea would be to have a 60's school setting. The opening setting would be in a classroom with everyone wearing clothes from that era. The main singer would be a boy who is as well a part of the class, throughout the video he is singing even though he is in a social setting but no one knows. He is singing about a girl who he has fallen for. In every shot she will be in the background so that we know that he is talking about her. As the song goes on they will get closer and closer. 

This band in my opinion is slightly similar to Good Charlotte- although i think that Good Charlotte is more well known there music is similar although there music videos are completely different. They tend to do more modern videos which also seem higher budget than Neon Trees. Maybe because of the fact that Good Charlotte is a punk rock band while Neon Trees is rock which can be argued is not as modern. Good Charlotte has been singed to 3 different labels while Neon Tress have only been signed to one and they tend to be opening acts at concerts. In my opinion there music is slightly similar although Good Charlotte seem to be making more money and are more well known.

Music Video Idea #1

My first idea for a music video is a song called slacklife by Andy Lewis. The thing which makes it different is that Andy Lewis is not a musical performer, instead he is the best slackliner in the world, therefor it is hard to identify his star image in term of music. 


His song is about something which is called Slacklife, Lewis's definition of it is this:

“A concept adopted by slackliners who live a life consistently and continually inspired by slacklining. Slacklining is not considered a sport by society. There is no slackline magazine. There are no set rules. No set definitions. No standardized equipment. No statistics. Most importantly, there are no true professionals. In fact there is pretty much no reason to slackline except for the sake of slacklining itself. That is the slacklife. Rules and regulations involved in the habitual and ridiculous effort to remove RISK entirely from society has made living the slacklife inside of society damn near impossible. Liability and insurance are the two words crippling the sport of slacklining today. “Slackers,” living the “slacklife,” instead; travel the globe in search of the most inspiring places to practice slacklining. Tricklining, longlining, highlining, and free solo are all separate facets of slacklining. Training all of these facets is an incredibly positive way to stay physically and mentally fit. This training is becoming a pseudo-religion amongst the community of slackliners; otherwise called the “slacklife.” Living in the moment, being immersed in the wilderness, challenging your body, developing your mind, confronting, controlling, and conquering one’s fear of death, and pursuing the pure, true, and honest unbridled feeling of freedom to do what you want is the foundation supporting the Slacklife.”

Therefor considering his definition of slacklife in mind my idea for a music video is a narrative. A bunch of young teens (not sure how many) are skateboarding/long-boarding. This is where we can use the GoPro and other similar equipment.Also being shots of them walking through the forest. Once finding a good place setting up a slackline, doing tricks and this sort of things. Its hard to properly explain the narrative but I think storyboarding it will make it alot clearer. My idea is to have a sort of montage- kind of like the Rudimental video but the song is more relaxed and embraces slacklife. 



The type of video i want to do is similar to the one by Simple Plan called Summer Paradise. Although the music is more acoustic - not as pop sounding. A group of      
young looking people- hanging out and having fun. But the video involves the singers singing along to there lyrics and I think that for this song it wont suit that style of video so much. Its hard to find another song similar to slacklife or of a singer to find the same type of star image as    Andy Lewis because of the fact that he is not an actual preformer although I think this music video is closest showing to the idea that I have for my coursework. 

The Brief

Produce 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 a digipak (CD/DVD package);

a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

Formula For Success

There is something known as a formula that unsigned artists can use to make cash without being signed to a label. 

Formula:
Connect with fans + Reason to Buy = The Business Model ($$$$)

Many artists have been known to use this formula, if on purpose or not so, that they build up a stronger fan base. Although this formula can be applied to many other aspects of digital media. 

Many people make excuses though, arguing that the formula doesn't work. For example 'An artists can sell concert tickets but he doesn't like to perform' so how does he than able to make money by using this formula. Although what people don't understand is that the business model itself is simple, its just the following thorough that can be difficult.

The second point is that what reason does the consumer have to buy? Very often artists display there content like its an obligation for for the consumer to buy, so they say the price- expecting them to buy, not doing a good job of convincing them to buy it. The artist fails to give the consumer a real reason to buy thinking that it is there fans obligation instead of there choice. 

The last question which tends to be asked often is is why should the artist be involved in any of this? Shouldn't they just stick to making the music? This is normally when a business man comes in and takes over, where the musician sticks to the music and they handle everything else. Although nowadays it is better for the musician to be involved because it makes it easier to connect with the fans and if you don't you just wont have many. 

Connection with fans is now easer then ever because of all the new technologies which makes the fans more of a reason to buy. Theres more and more music being made, meaning more and more fans = more money to be made.