Music De-construction

This lesson we have looked at music de-construction and fitting a visual to the lyrics of the song we are planning to do the video on. I looked at Cydni Lauper - 'Time after Time' lyrics and timed the lyrics which took quite a long time because she seems to hardly ever breath in the song!!!
I also thought about what visuals I think would suit a) the Music and b) the Lyrics.
Here are the Lyrics to the song:

Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick,And think of youCaught up in circles confusionIs nothing newFlashback warm nightsAlmost left behindSuitcases of memories,Time afterSometimes you picture meIm walking too far aheadYoure calling to me, I cant hearWhat youve saidThen you say go slowI fall behindThe second hand unwindsIf youre lost you can look and you will find meTime after timeIf you fall I will catch you Ill be waitingTime after timeIf youre lost you can look and you will find meTime after timeIf you fall I will catch you Ill be waitingTime after timeAfter my picture fades and darkness hasTurned to grayWatching through windows youre wonderingIf Im okSecrets stolen from deep insideThe drum beats out of timeIf youre lost you can look and you will find meTime after timeIf you fall I will catch you Ill be waitingTime after timeYou said go slowI fall behindThe second hand unwindsIf youre lost you can look and you will find meTime after timeIf you fall I will catch you Ill be waitingTime after timeIf youre lost you can look and you will find meTime after timeIf you fall I will catch you Ill be waitingTime after timeTime after timeTime after timeTime after time.

Looking at the lyrics I come up with the idea with soemthing to do with the ups and downs of a relationship. This gave me one possible idea:

Idea 1: Girl and Boy couple together in every decade. e.g. we see them in love in the 60's to the 00's therefore different elements change. We see them maybe in black and white slow dancing to a song romantically then it cuts to the 2000's where it's in colour and they are dancing in the modern way romantically. It shows how times have changed but the couple are still together no matter what the era is?

Listening to the music and the instruments there is a gentle strumming the whole way through which makes it constant. The pace of the music is also very slow most of the way and it's actually the lyrics that make the pace of the song fasten. This means I will have to make sure that if I choose to correspond my visual with the words they should be faster paced than if I chose to correspond my visuals to the music. I am going to think my first idea over and decide whether I want to do something fast or slow paced.

Dirrty

I have literally also just found this information on Christina's video which I know I will find useful.....

Music video

The music video drew controversy for its sexual content, including a scene with Aguilera in a bikini and chaps and spreading her legs in this shot.

The song's music video was directed by David LaChapelle. It depicts what was described as "a post-apocalyptic orgy".[18] The video opens with Aguilera gearing up and riding a motorcycle into a nightclub. Wearing a bikini and chaps, she is lowered from a cage into a boxing ring and dances, accompanied by several back-up dancers. A masked woman is lowered into the ring, and the two engage in foxy boxing. The scene is intercut with sequences of Aguilera dancing in a crop top, which she later removes to reveal a bikini top, and a microskirt. Redman then proceeds down a hallway, passing people such as mud wrestlers, a contortionist, and furries. The video proceeds to a scene of Aguilera and back-up dancers splashing and dancing while being sprayed with water in a room containing several urinals, as a possible reference to urolagnia.[19]
The music video was successful on video chart programs. It debuted on MTV's Total Request Live October 2, 2002 at number six.[20] It lasted forty-four days on the program,[20] half of which were at the top of the countdown.[21] At the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, the video was nominated for Best Female Video, Best Dance Video, Best Pop Video, and Best Choreography.[22] The video lasted eight weeks on MuchMusic's Countdown, peaking at number eleven.[13]
The video generated some controversy and presented Aguilera's new public image. When Perry first saw the video, she asked Aguilera, "Are you high? This is annoying. Why are you doing this?"[23] Two weeks after its premiere, the video had already been spoofed by Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar on Saturday Night Live, who said (playing Aguilera): "When people see this video, they gonna stop thinking of me as some blonde-haired, bubblegum, music-industry ho – and start thinking of me as an actual ho."[24] Aguilera later commented that it was disappointing and that she "could have made a funnier script out of it."[18] Protests occurred in Thailand over Thai-language posters in the video that translate to "Thailand's Sex Tourism" and "Young Underage Girls". LaChapelle stated that he had not known what the posters stated, and RCA disallowed Thai television stations from playing the video.[25]
Aguilera's new image was widely rejected by the public to the extent that it began to overshadow her music.[26] Entertainment Weekly described it as "the world's skeeziest reptile woman",[3] and The Village Voice captioned her as a xenomorph from the Alien series.[27] Several of Aguilera's contemporaries, such as Shakira and Jessica Simpson, disapproved of her image, finding it "a step too far".[18] Time magazine commented that "she appeared to have arrived on the set…direct from an intergalactic hooker convention", adding that "she earned that extra r."[26] Aguilera, stating that she like "to play and experiment, to be as tame or as outlandish as [she] happened to feel", stood by the music video and her image in response to the criticism:
When you are bold and open, artistically speaking, in music and in video, a whole bunch of people automatically feel threatened by you, especially in Middle America…OK, I may have been the naked-ass girl in the video, but if you look at it carefully, I'm also at the forefront. I'm not just some lame chick in a rap video; I'm in the power position, in complete command of everything and everybody around me. To be totally balls-out like that is, for me, the measure of a true artist.[18]

Presentation

Today I am focussing on my music video presentation. I have researched music videos on wikipedia and found this statement:

"Music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV's format was based around them. The term "music video" first came into popular usage in the early 1980s. Prior to then, such clips were described by various terms including "promotional films" or "promotional clips".

Music videos are often called promo videos (or simply promos), as they are usually used as promotional devices by record labels. In the 1980s, the term "rock video" was often used to describe this form of entertainment, although the term has fallen into disuse. Music videos use a range of styles of filmmaking, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. "

I have also looked more closely at the two music videos chosen for my powerpoint and how they differ from not only each other but also from other music videos in the same category (genre). The main difference is the focus of the videos. Christina Aguilara was already a big star at the time but the video 'Dirrty' was to launch her new 'grown-up' look. Therefore, the video was mainly focused on Christina to promote her makeover. Camera shots showed what she was wearing and close-ups on her new piercings. Mark Ronson at the time of his video release wasn't well known so he had a whole new clean slate. I think he took this oppotunity the same that most DJs do as he wasn't shown in the video. His video wasn't focussed on him but his music and the story being told. As a result of this things such as choreography, editing and special effects were all spot on as they were the big part of the video, they are what would make or break the video and in result make or break the artist Mark Ronson. Christina however, even though she obviously had some choreography the video was mainly about how Christina looks and no special editing was used. There was a green, brown look on the lighting however to bring across the setting of them underground etc.

In conclusion to my thoughts today I think both videos were very successful in their purpose for the artists.

Finally decided

In this lesson I finally decided which videos I would look at for my presentation. I have chosen Christina Aguilara's 'Dirtty' and Mark Ronson's 'Stop Me'. I have chosen these as they are competely different to each other with different purposes. Mark Ronson wasn't even featured in his video whereas Christina was the main star of her video.

Simple plan

Today we watched a video by the band 'Simple Plan' to their songs 'Addicted' and 'I'd do anything'. The first song 'Addicted' consisted on the band being in a room and 'rocking out' making the ceiling fall apart portraying that their music is 'groundbreaking' literally! We can tell that they're a group by the way they are all shown together....to be continued

Chris Cunningham

Todays lesson was interesting....we watched a series of crazy videos on a docummentry about director Chris Cunningham. I particlarly enjoyed watching the experimental videos because I'd never seen something like that before, it has given lots of fresh, new ideas. I think it has given me inspiration to look at what characteristics I should bring to music videos.

Research, Research

For out first lesson (not including the introduction) of Music Videos I have researched videos in the specific genres that I am interested in. I also looked at the video to 'Time after Time by Cyndi Lauper' as this is the song I currently have an idea for.
I have used Blackboard to get through to the yahoo music website to view these videos. Other videos I have looked at are 'Clumsy by Fergie' and 'Where do we go (animated version) by Ben Jelen '. I looked at these as they were both different to one another. The Fergie video was alot more focused on the Artist and what she was doing and wearing whereas in the Ben Jelen video we never see his face as it is all animated. I feel this might be because Fergie is alot more well known and international therefore they use that to promote the video.
Next lesson I hope to look into more experimental videos to explore a wider range other than just the well known as these tend to all be the same.