Pitch – Music Video

Music Video ResearchA music video is a short film/video that accompanies a song or a piece of music. Modern music videos are created to be used as a marketing device to raise awareness of the release of a song and help with the sales, some bands/artist though just release them to make new material for their fans. Music videos started to get a lot more attention and became more important in the 1980’s when MTV and VH1 were both launched. They often include a number of film techniques but the most popular are live action and animation. In 1964 The Beatles created a feature film called ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, in the film there was a lot of musical sequences involved this scenes are often seen as a huge influence on countless music videos and promo clips made after. In modern times music videos are made accessible in a number of ways including the websites like YouTube, music channels on TV on the like of the MTV Channels (MTV Hits, Base, Dance and MTV 2), VH1 and 4music, they can be seen on the go on mobile devices like iPods, mobile phones etc so in today's music scene they are very important.

Music Video Research ContinuedMusic videos often feature the band/artist in the video or sometimes they don’t feature at all this is often done when a animated video is made. An example of animation can be seen below, it is a video to a Daft Punk song, for their album Discovery they made a animated video for every track on the album which told a story. Some bands decide to feature themselves in the video this often done by new bands as most people don’t know what they look like but a lot of popular bands do it an example can be seen below with the Arctic Monkeys Video, some bands film footage from concerts they have performed and use them as a music video. Daft Punk – Digital Love

Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightning

Target AudienceMy target audience will be males and females between 13 and 25 as this is the age group that purchases more than anybody, also they are the age group which is more likely to enjoy the music. Also they will be looking at music magazines so they will see the advert and as this age group uses technology a lot there is more chance that they will be more likely to see the music video.

Possible Locations For Filming.I have a number of ideas for a location on where to film my video. My first idea my friends garage as it will be easy to light up and it will be easy to record the band playing in there. For the other part of the videos I think I’ll will have it set outside in a field but I haven’t fully decided yet on the final video. The idea from the field/park comes from the Biffy Clyro video ‘Questions & Answers’ in which the play in a park and I thought this looked good so I have taken inspiration from that.

Music Video Analysis Bloc Party – Helicopter:Bloc Party are an indie/rock band and this is the video for one of their singles. The video is completely in black and white, this gives it a dark feel, it is in black and white because the video is meant to seem like a video transmission and has black and grey lines in-between some shots to show this (see picture below). For the majority of the video it shows the band playing in a room but there are also shots of a person lying on a bed in a empty room with fuzzy lines around them, this gives the impression that it is set in a mental hospital or something like that. It is a very fast paced video which fits in with the song. The shots in between the band members are very fast and the cutting between shots is fast. There is often a quick close up on the lead singers eyes/face so you can see his emotion when he is singing. As the video progresses the band members start to get fuzzy lines around them like the transmission is fading or that they are fading away. In this video I like that it is filmed in black and white , I like the fast editing in it and the fast pace and I will probably include something like this in my video.

Music Video Analysis Part 2 Biffy Clyro – Questions & AnswersBiffy Clyro are a rock band from Scotland, some of their songs have heavier parts in them which is noticeable in their videos. This is the video for the single Questions & Answers. The video starts with two band members sleeping, they have zzzzz coming out of their heads, and these are written in a handwritten style, the songs starts and one of them wakes up. There is a extreme close up of his face and he has a swirl in his eye. He then gets out of bed and goes and cleans his teeth when he spits it out the toothpaste is drawn like the zzzzz’s and the swirl, I like this and might incorporate this into my video. The video shows a story of some teenagers planning something and continues with the drawing on the screen at certain points; it also has a midshot of the band walking down the street showing the singer singing. As the band walk along the teenagers are following them and hiding but the audience doesn’t know why yet. The band then make it to their destination and start to play the song the kids come out and throw water balloons and they explode you don’t water but drawing again and it has a pencil effect to it. The cutting from the band to the children is quick as the song is going quick at this point as well. I like this video alot especially the drawings over the people etc.

Genre Mood Board: This is a mood board for all the bands that are like my music, when I am doing the promotional package I will base my photos on bands like this. When photos of bands are taken then usually have the lead singer in the middle of the photo, I will take this into account when taking my photos. They are all just standing there apart from The Presets and Biffy Clyro who are doing a pose, I will take this into consideration.

Album Cover:I have looked at a number of album covers and I am undecided on whether to include the band on the front cover. I’ve noticed that a lot of bands/artists don’t include themselves on it. I will have the bands name in big letters so when the album is on a shelf it will be noticed by passers by and will be easy to spot. I think I will have the album title on the top as this seems to be a common thing with album covers. A lot of the albums below use graphics and none of them feature the band. They all feature the name of the artist and the album name bar the Justice album.

For my 3rd task I still undecided on whether to do an advert in a magazine or a website for the artist because of this I will analyze both things and then make a decision. I am thinking of doing the magazine as I feel Website: This website has the name of the artist

in big letters at the top to let the user know they are on their website. It has different links at the top to relevant things that the user may want to know about including news, discography and more. It also includes in the centre of the page the more important things including official news, a link to a blog and live dates with a link to buy tickets. At the bottom it includes links to the artist myspace, facebook and twitter page. It also links to the artists record label.This website has a similar layout to the one above, it has the bands name at the top, headings with different link and then the more important information like gigs, news and releases on the homepage. There is a general layout to most artists website so if I did one then I’d have to make sure that I stuck to it.

Magazine Advert AnalysisName of the band and album at the top to attract readers attention

Information including release date, the singles, the fact it features a DVD, this is to make readers wanting to buy the album.

Website addresses so people can find out more information

Big image related to album artwork

All the text is in white so it stands out so when a reader is having a look through the magazine they will notice the advert and the text