Music Video Evaluation

At first, when creating a music video, I struggled to think of an idea. I had my heart set on a Math Rock song, but wasn't sure which band to choose, so I decided to choose the band that first got me into the genre, The Bulletproof Tiger. Momentum Booooooootssss is my personal favourite song by the band, so I decided to do this song for my music video. The first problem I encountered was the fact that the song had no lyrics, so to some there seems to be no meaning there. I then began analysing Math Rock music videos, and found that a common theme throughout the majority is food, so decided to follow that trend, as to promote a genre image. I instantly knew the most prominent food would be a hot dog, because I find them amusing, and I wanted to put one of my friends in a hot dog costume for the entertainment value of the video, as most Math Rock videos are humorous. I also chose the Hot Dog, because hot dogs themselves are quite disgusting in nature, with an array of mystery meat, because you never know what you're going to get in a hot dog, like with math rock, because as an experimental genre you don't know what to expect, as the style of music throughout the genre differs greatly.

I am pleased with the quality of most of the footage, however some of it is quite grainy and under exposed, this is due to filming inside at night with lack of professional lighting equipment, so I had to turn the ISO up to the maximum, and have the aperture as wide often as possible, with an aperture of f/5.6. I tried to edit this post-production, however the quality suffered from this even furthers I decided to leave it untampered with. During the editing process, I discovered that I did not have enough footage to fill the whole song, as the strict course deadline and the ambitious amount of footage I wanted to get stopped me from managing to film every shot, so I had to cut the music down and add an exponential fade so that the music did not just stop suddenly. Another barrier I had to cross when filming the music video was finding people who would be willing to star in some of these outlandish shots, so for a good portion of the footage I had to film and be in the footage, which accounted for a lot of re shots, taking up even more of my time before the deadline. I finally found someone willing to dress as a hot dog, but was adamant that he would not actually swallow the hot dog, therefore I had to do a bit of 'movie magic' (commonly known as editing) in order to make it look like the hot dog was eaten. In hindsight, when I filmed the shot of me eating the hot dog 'whole' it did make me feel a little bit sick so I don't blame him for not eating the 'meat'. 

Due to the amount of shots in the footage, and the complexity of the gummy bear dance sequence, I encountered the classic problem of running out of space on my SD card, but this is down to my own fault as I had not properly cleared the card of the data from the last project, therefore there were hidden traces of this footage left on the SD card. The last problem I encountered was again whilst editing, and this was that apparently the stills I had taken to create the stop motion dance sequence were in the wrong format, as they were in CS Raw files, and I needed them as JPEGs. Normally this would not be a problem, but the Mac I was editing on was old and had out dated versions of software on there, so I had to move the files to another computer and convert them there. 

Below is a shot of the bins I have used whilst editing my music video. I found that putting in the time to label footage clearly and using labelled bins significantly helped me during the editing process, as it was much easier to find the footage that I needed. At first, when editing, I was going to use just two bins for used and unused footage, however I then decided to label bins for the main scenes, and the 'used footage' bin became where I stored anything outside of these main scenes.

Overall I am proud of my final piece, as I believe you can see a certain degree of technical skill in there. Contrarily, however, if I were to have more time on this project I would definitely add more shots in order to create jump cuts throughout the video, with more editing done to the beat of the music and not just some of the final video edited in time to the music. However, one of my favourite shots in the music video is the transition from hot dog costume to actual hot dog, where I was trying to portray that the protagonist turns into a hot dog, but the framing in each of these shots matches up perfectly, which was honestly a complete accident, but makes the video look significantly more professional in my opinion.

Development of Editing Technology

Editing is used in order to put together pieces of footage in order to form a cohesive narrative. The first films in cinema contained no editing, and would be shot in one continuous take, which as you can imagine was tedious for actors and film makers alike. One of the first films to use editing was Georges Méliès' 'A Trip To The Moon'(1914), and the editing techniques used in this time period were very basic, involving the editor physically cutting film reels with a razor blade and pasting them together with glue and tape. This task was long winded and tedious, but without this basic form of editing we would not have the software that is commonly used by film makers today. This method of editing was used until 1924, when the Moviola was born. This piece of technology allowed for much smoother, easier editing, but also brought in edge numbering, which allowed for audio and video to be edited simultaneously.

Steenbeck later invented the flatbed editing suite, which took the world of editing by storm. The flatbed suite allowed an editor to view and edit footage, allowing for much more precise editing. In 1953, the Steenbeck flatbed 16mm 4 plate was introduced, the ST200. This 'new media' added optical sound and allowed for playback of 16mm perforated magnetic tape. In 1954, the ST100 was introduced, which allowed for the editing of 35mm film. Soon after, the first editing suite with a built in back projector came out, the ST400, which was followed by the ST500 switchblade, allowing for standard and cinemascope footage.

Kinescope recordings came about during the 1940's, which is at its roots a camera recording a video screen of a live broadcast, but this came with many technical downsides, such as banding and ghosting.

The next pioneering step in editing technology was when Ampex released the first 2" quadruplex video tape in 1956. This type of film allowed for editors to see the magnetic strip in the tape, so allowed for much more precision in editing. The con of this, however, is that video and audio could not be edited at the same time, as they were too far apart in the editing machine, so they therefore had to edit the video first and then put the audio back in it's corresponding place. Another problem is that with linear editing, it became a hassle when trying to re-edit pieces of footage, as you would have to edit over an old edit, therefore some of the old footage may remain over the new footage.

1971 saw the next game changing invention of the editing world, the CMX 600. Only six of these machines were ever invented, but they paved the way for non-linear editing. In 1989, the Avid 1 was produced, and having now overcome linear editing problems, they now were faced with the problem of having to store so much raw footage, so in 1993 Avid released a 7 terabyte system to overcome this issue. Non linear systems require two things, computer power and data storage, however non linear systems take significantly less time to use, which lessens production costs greatly as editors have some of the highest wages in film making.

Digital editing took the world by storm, as it could improved the quality of editing as a whole, as it was easier to add special effects, the footage is resistant to noise and chatter and is easy to copy and sync. 1990 saw the birth of New Trek's 'Video Toaster' on the Omega system, which had limited linear editing capabilities, however brought editing to schools and many low budget television studios. In 1995, the DVD was created, along with a new type of compression, MPEG-2. A year later, the first HD broadcast was made in the US, the process of which involved feeding a piece of 35mm footage through a telecine, which creates a digital copy of this footage, which could then be manipulated with special effects etc and converted back to film.

Since digital editing has become more and more popular, the editing world has never turned back, however it wasn't until 2002 that the first film was shot pure digitally, and this was Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones. Later that decade allowed for films to be shot digitally and edited completely online, therefore independent film makers have been growing in number more and more in recent years.

Music Video- Finished Product

The Bulletproof Tiger- Momentum Booooooooootssss

Shot List/Edit Decision List

Music Video Research Evaluation

The first step in the production of my music video was to conduct research into music video theorists, such as Andrew Goodwin and Carol Vernallis, and to then apply this research when analysing music videos. Firstly, this consisted of secondary research, looking at books and web pages relating to these theorists and taking notes and writing blog posts around what I had found. This then became primary research as I analysed music videos looking for what I had previously found in Goodwin's and Vernallis' work.

I knew that I wanted to produce a music video for a piece of Math Rock music, which more often than not is completely instrumental, so I could disregard the points related to lyrics when looking a creating my music video. This semiotic analysis of music videos played a vital part in the production of my own music video as it allowed me to analyse the codes and conventions of math rock music videos, giving me an insight into what I need to achieve from my music video. When conducting analysis of music videos, I found that a lot of music videos visuals often contradicted the lyrics, especially in the more experimental videos, however a lot of the time the editing would amplify the beat of the music and in Tera Melos-Weird Circles, the people on screen can be seen mouthing the lyrics to the song. This analysis offered me an array of ideas and inspiration which followed me throughout the production of the music video.

Whilst analysing Math Rock music videos, I found a common theme that existed throughout many western Math Rock bands, which was food. I decided to go with this theme, and through primary research in the form of a questionnaire and focus groups I had come up with a selection of scenes to film thanks to people's ideas when confronted with the topic of food. I also managed to gain quantitative data that showed me that most of the people I questioned (55%) stated that experimental music videos were their favoured type of music video, with narrative being the second most favoured (30%) and only 15% of people saying that performance is their favourite type of music video. conducting this questionnaire was helpful for me, as it allowed me to gain quantitative data of people's opinions, as well as the qualitative data I got during the focus groups. The questionnaire however could be seen as biased, as multiple choice answers often do not allow for the full range of answers, as you cannot take into account every possibility. Also, some of the questions may have been slightly leading, however I tried to stay away from this as best as possible as I wanted the purest possible answers in the form of people's actual opinions and not what I want them to think their opinion is. The questionnaire was quite helpful in the production of my music video, as it allowed me to gain some insight and inspiration for my music video, however I feel that the focus group helped me more, as the questions were much more open and therefore I got a wide range of responses which then aided me in the formulation of the narrative of the music video.

In conclusion, I believe research went well in terms of what I wanted to achieve from the music video, but as my chosen song does not contain lyrics I was unable to research these and therefore the meaning of the song is rather ambiguous. If I were to do this project again, I would probably choose a song with more of a meaning and lyrics, so it would be easier to produce the music video. The quantitative data that I received from my questionnaire, however, could be argued to be not very reliable, due to the nature of the questions asked, and I believe that the focus group was significantly more helpful in the pre-production and production process. The secondary research that I conducted in the form of music video analysis was also incredibly helpful, as it really allowed me to come to terms with the conventions shown throughout math rock music videos.

Improvements to be made:

• Record audio of a focus group in order to back up findings and to listen to for inspiration
• Conduct a focus group with more participants to gain a more varied response and more data
• Create a questionnaire with open ended questions or an 'other' section so that more reliable responses can be determined.
• Analysis of more music videos relating to the Math Rock genre

Carol Vernallis

In her works, 'Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context' (2004) and 'Unruly Media: Youtube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema' (2013), Vernallis identifies 4 key factors in music video production, which are:

• Narrative
• Editing
• Camera Movement and Framing
• Diegesis

Narrative
The visuals you see in a music video are the visualisation of the song's narrative, or at least how a certain person views the narrative of the song. However, this narrative can often be skewed or fragmented, so an audience does not receive the full interpretation, which can often lead to many questions being left unanswered by the music video.

Editing
A common convention of music videos is experimental editing style and often breaking away from traditional continuity editing, through the use of jump cuts, breaking the 30 degree rule, contradicting imagery and often jarring transitions.

Camera Movement and Framing
The two most used shots in music videos are Establishing shots and Close Up shots, due to the nature of these shots being that yo set the scene, and then focus on something specific or get to feel the emotion in the song through close ups. Framing is also very important, because the placement of certain things can often be specific to that music video, creating a specific style.

Diegesis
The diegesis in a music video is often revealed slowly, and actions can often be disrupted or left unfinished. Music videos will often contain repetition of frames, because there is often one theme to a music video, or a piece of footage specific to a chorus that represents the song and is therefore repeated.

Vernallis, Carol. 2004. Experiencing Music Videos: Aesthetics and Cultural Context. Columbia University Press.
Vernallis, Carol. 2013. Unruly Media: Youtube, Music Video and the New Digital Cinema. Oxford University Press.

Andrew Goodwin

In Goodwin's work, 'Dancing In The Distraction Factory', published in 1992, he stated that there are 5 key aspects of a music video. These aspects are as follows:

• Thought Through Beat
• Relationship Between Song and Visuals
• Narrative and Performance of the Song
• Technical Aspects
• Star Image

Thought Through Beat
The first step of Goodwin's theory is analysis of the music structure, and looking at the verses and choruses. The next step is to look at the vocal style, and how it is significant to that certain singer, therefore linking to band/star image, as most people are able to identify an artist by their voice. The next step is to analyse the meaning/narrative of the song, as it can establish a story and tell you something about the songwriter's life.

Relationship Between Song and Visuals
There are three ways visuals are used to amplify a song:
-Illustrate;
Some music videos use visuals to illustrate/explain the meaning of the song/lyrics and relation to the genre.
-Subvert;
The visuals on screen completely contradict the song lyrics in some music videos
-Amplify;
This is when visuals are manipulated to add meaning to the song, such as using imagery to represent sounds in the song.

Narrative and Performance of the Song
Andrew Goodwin believed that it was important for the singer to star in the music video, in order to give the audience a good understanding of the song and to portray a sense of band image. He also believed that music videos should often disregard traditional narrative structure, as to have the performance of the song and the narrative work hand in hand in order for the visuals to represent the song, and so that an audience member can view the video over and over and still enjoy it.

Star Image
Goodwin believes that having the singer as the main focus of the music video, with many camera shots displaying them as the centre of attention is vital to make the video more appealing to the audience, as they will recognise them and this will boost their band image.

Technical Aspects
Goodwin believed that the technical aspects of a music video, i.e. the mise-en-scene, camera techniques, lighting aspects, special effects, sound and editing are the base building blocks of a music video and hold the whole thing together. Lighting and colour set the mood for the music video, as they can create emphasis on certain aspects and make an audience member feel a certain way. mise-en-scene is important to represent band image and to make something look more professional, as will camera, sound and editing.

Goodwin, Andrew. 1993. Dancing in the Distraction Factory: Music, Television and Popular Culture. Routledge.

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