Rudimental - Feel The Love

Rudimental - Feel The Love

This music video tells a story not related to the video.  It completely ignores the lyrics of the song and instead tells the story of the characters within the visuals.  The video does not show any lyrical lip sinking or miming.  This shows it has no relation to the lyrics, even through the visuals on screen.  It is an idea to tell a story through my video, although I believe the promotion of the song and meaning becomes deeper when it has a visual relation to the lyrics.

Categories of Music Videos

There are 3 main types of music videos which include:
- Performance based videos
- Narrative based videos
- Concept based videos

Performance based videos involve live visuals of the artist performing on set.  These can be lower budget films and may be more likely to be used by more independent bands.  One video which uses this technique is "American Idiot" by GreenDay.




This video is made up almost completely of shots showing the band performing the song, or Billie Joe lip syncing to the song along with playing the guitar. However, they have made the video interesting and not just used a standard performance by making each band member perform the song at a different speed, such as Billie Joe performing the song sped up whilst Tre Cool is playing the drums at normal speed, etc. This alternates between band members throughout the video and gives the video an individual, creative edge. There is also a theme of the colour green throughout the video, supposedly to go along with the bands name "Green Day". As this is a theme throughout the video it gets stuck in the viewers mind and reminds them of the bands name. There is also an American flag behind the band members as they are performing the song, this is used in an ironic way as the song is about not wanting to be an American idiot. The flag is also green which goes along with the theme of green in the video but also contrasts with the usual red white and blue, making it seem like it is decaying which could also go along with the lyrics which promote a bad view of what America has become. Being a highly political song, Green Day have chosen to use rapid fast paced shots to show their individuality and this promotes anarchy, this is also shown when they smash their instruments at the end of the video which shows their sense of rebellion, which contrasts with the view of what America is today.

Narrative Based Videos involve a story being told through the visuals.  This can relate directly to the lyrics of the song and tell the story of the artist, or it can complete ignore the lyrics and convert the meaning of the song.
An example of a narrative music video is "Waiting All Night" by Rudimental. 

 

This tells the story of a BMX rider who loses his leg.  The opening scene briefly shows us his life before his accident.  It goes through his recovery showing the effect on his family and friends.  It provides a message that you should never give up on what you love doing as we see him defy the odds, pick up his bike, and ride again.  The timing of him taking back to his bike for the first time fits nicely with a drop of the music as he "drops" into the BMX bowl.  His mates then join in and the scene shows a similar staging to the opening scene, showing a direct link and portray that his life is back to how it used to be.

Concept Based Videos tend to have no storyline, they're usually a random concept and sometimes tend to not tie in with the band or theme of the song at all. An example of a video that is concept based is OK GO's "Here It Goes Again".

This video shows the band performing a dance routine on 6 treadmills, a very original and abstract idea that has never been done before for a music video. It would have had to be shot in one take for continuity, which would have put pressure on the band members to not make any mistakes. The routine is flawless in the video, apart from at about 1 minute in where the man on the front left treadmill starts to fall off, but it is barely noticeable as he recovers well. Another point in the video that could have been as mistake is the very beginning where the man is trying to turn on the CD player and it wont work, however this could have been a deliberate mistake to add humour to the video. The routine is in time with the music and the band tend to do tricks in their routine at key points during the song, making the routine more catchy and eye grabbing, making viewers want to keep watching. This concept was a very simple, yet effective video and soon became a viral hit, giving the band much promotion and success

 

 

What I would do

 

I believe a narrative based music video offers the best space for innovation.  It would allow me to use some unique environments and camera shots that would link with my chosen storyline.  I believe telling the story of the lyrics through visuals provides the most effective way to promote the video as it links emotionally to the audience.  

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin's theory of music videos include 6 points which he believes a music video should follow in order to be a successful promotion for the song.

- Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
This implies that the music video must follow the theme of the artist, lyrics and genre in order to be successful.  For example, House music, or a dance track would have visuals showing clubs, raving, fast paced action.  A rap video would typically show a lot of bling, expensive cars, big mansions, fast jets etc.  There is also often an excessive use of female characters around the artist.  These are common stereotypes of the specific genre that we associate to.

- There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.  The lyrics are represented with images.
This implies that what is being said within the lyrics at a moment in time, should occasionally be shown on screen.  For example, JessieJ singing Price Tag, she is singing the lyrics "its not about the money" whilst stood in front of a money tree.

- There is a relationship between music and visuals.  The tone and atmosphere of the visuals reflect that of the music.
This could include simple things such as editing cuts to the beat of the music.  The editor may chose to contradict the music such a Kanye West, Runaway, rapping to the visuals of ballet dancers.  This is similar to point 1, in that having a dance track would be likely that you would see DJ's, raves, parties and drinking within the music video.  This would set the atmosphere and purpose of the music and represent it in a visual form.


- The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.
This creates an image of the artist so that whenever we as consumer see the same thing or something similar, we associate it with that artist even though it may not be relevant.  This is a form of promotion/advertisement.  A prime example of this may be the recent development of Miley Cyrus.  Across Miley's work and music videos, the artist is often shown sticking her tongue out.  This immediately associates her with this act in the future.


- There is frequent reference to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.  For example, on scene, a man in the background may be looking at the dominant female, this would imply that we should be doing the same thing.  Also, if the characters on set are not looking at the camera's, this would imply that we should not be looking at them as they are not engaging us.

- There is often intertextual references eg, to films, tv programmes or other music videos.  For example, within a music video, the director may chose to reproduce a famous scene from a film. 

Existing products

One of my favourite videos is All Of The Lights, by Kanye west.

 

It has a nice mixture of film, animation and computer graphics.  I think this would be a good feature for my final video

Introduction

By the end of this project I will aim to achieve a well rounded music video, complete with a full log of progress and research on similar media products.
This should also include a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following:
- a website homepage for the band/artist
- a digipak for the album's release
- a magazine advertisement for the digipack
To achieve the highest level, all research should be relevant, blogs must be regular and up to date and include all aspects of my media product.  My final music video should be to my highest standard and link well with my group blog.