Research: Uptown Funk Remake

Uptown Funk Remake

Uptown Funk, a song that was popular throughout the world since the beginning of its release. Now, the song reached the view count of over 1 billion because of its Jazz feel, powerful vocals and smooth dancing. Our task is to make our own version of Uptown Funk during the week.

Team Members and Plan

Crew

Pearl: Cameraman, props
George H: Girl, Editor, props
Pooh: Director, costumes, Bruno Mars

Planning: Pearl created up a shot sheet of all the cuts along with rhythm to 1) indicate how many cuts there are. 2) to identify each action the actors and dancers had to follow along and 3) for editing purposes.

Shot Sheet 

Filming

Location 

All of the filming occurred at the sixth form centre. The two main locations for our team were the balcony outside of the sixth form centre and by the cafe.

Door: we used this part of the location to do the first verse of the music video because it was similar to the scene of the first verse in the music video with an "urban", "uptown" look. Also, the door scene was like there to make the audience feel the attraction of the women led those dancers and Bruno Mars to walk out of the cafe and sing.

Balcony: Used for the "observe" scene, the balcony is a perfect spot for filming that particular scene because the actors can mimic the actions of the real footage.

Filming

The process took a total of 2 days to film. On the first day of filming, we filmed the introduction part and the transition scene from the intro of the music to the first verse. On the second day, we filmed the first verse and the chorus of the music which surprisingly took less time to film even though the duration of the first verse compared to the intro was greater. However, the intro had a lot of shots that we had to cover so it took more time. 

Bloopers

ENJOY!

Research: Digipaks

Digipaks

what are they?

Like what the word "digipak" says, it is literally a packaging for a digital content which is audio and in tracks. Basically, it is what the public would call an "album cover".

There are five main points for the purpose of Digipaks

1) attract consumers: Digipaks are the main key to an artist selling their hit songs. It is considered the "first stage" to gain there consumers, so the artist or the digipak designer who works under a certain artist should make that first impression to lure in buyers. If the artist produces good music but has a bland and dull album cover for their digipak, the chances of getting the maximum amount of consumers will decrease. Therefore a first external impression is key.

2) Not "put off" consumers: this point supports the first point

3) Genre specific- appeal to target audience: Artists of the same genre follow similar styles to their digipak covers. An example would be Adele; she sings songs that are easy to listen, as a result, the digipak cover that will attract her audience would need to be dramatic or have a deep meaning to it (Black and White with her closing her eyes and doing a dramatic pose). On the other hand, if it were a rap artist; the digipak cover would be flashy to an extent and would have either: money, girls, cars, rap clothing or even at times a dramatic photo in the front of the cover.

 album covers that are easy to listen

Clearly rap album covers

4) Brand development- star persona

5) Be attractive as a physical product: needs to be "eye catching for the audience

Taylor Swift

The albums that Taylor Swift produces can clearly show the change in both her style and her growth from being a teenage country girl to a Californian success who made it to the red carpet. As a result, she undergoes changes in looks and style of clothing to communicate to the audience

 Album 2006: natural look, country style, girl next door, innocent, teenage, handrwritten signature

Fearless: More grown up, signature again, hair spread, more confident, handwritten personal

Speak Now: signature, dress more mature, still a little disney princess,

RED: Red lipstick, face is covered, straight hair more serious, less introduction to herself, famous, more target audience

1989: Birth date, polaroid, initials, very personal, hipster vibes, lips only no eyes

Calvin Harris

Again, Calvin Harris also clearly shows his growth. However, he highlights his growth in terms of style of edm music and also his fame, from being that dj who made disco music, to a superstar who is known for his unique edm style.

I created disco: pop, bright colours, retro look, home made theme

Ready for the weekend: Beautiful lady, similar signatures, closeup, now not his face because he has a team.

18 Months: New style, not a lot of work in picture, wide shot now, turns away from camera to show independence and style now. New font

Motion: Futuristic, change in music genre, motion, figure in fabric.

Nicki Minaj

For Nicki, it was a little weird; Nicki Minaj showed her evolution through the changes of her alter ego: Roman. She begins to let go of Roman at her latest album but other than that, her style of music is the same.

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Pink Friday: odd, barbie, parental adviory so fake, dimensions are wrong,

Roman Reloaded; lots of makeup to resemble roman and her transformation to her alter ego, pink, girly

Print: she's gone, no more nicki, print, roman's print

Research: Counting Edits

Edit Counting

The main key to a good and thrilling music video are the myriad amount of cuts that are in the entire music video. The more the cuts, the more interesting your music video would be. The reason why music videos have a lot of editing is to match the musical rhythm with the edits and to transition scene by scene in order to prevent the viewer from going into boredom in seeing their favourite artist shot at one angle or level. Here are different music videos that have different numbers of editing.

1) P1-01: My Neighbour's House- (8 edits in 40 seconds)

 A piece of work done by former A-Level Media Studies students. It is not one of the best music videos out there coming from mostly the quality of the visuals but also the amount of cutting and editing of the video. It doesn't bring any attention to the audience.

2) The Cribs: We share the same skies- (23 edits in 40 seconds)

This music video was more interesting due to its number of cuts and the way it was edited using black and white filters and a green screen of the band travelling along the road. Compared to the 1st music video, this one had more "mood" and mainly its editing helped set the tone.

3) Who's That Chick- Rihanna ft. David Guetta (approx. 60 edits in 40 seconds)

Well known for her music videos and how she presents herself in her videos, most of Rihanna's videos have fast cuts to show her intense motion.

4) Rap God-Eminem (approx 60 edits in 40 seconds)

This song, not only known for its quick and fast lyrics, but also a music video that can turn you sideways. During the first 4o seconds, it has approximately 60 to 70 cuts. Eminem uses that many cuts to let the audience recognize that there will be fast sick lyrics in this song and it hypes the audience up from the beginning.

Research: Editing Get Lucky

Editing a Music Video

At one lesson, we edited a remake of the Pharrell Williams song "Get Lucky" ft. Daft Punk. I used the remake video of a student in the UK. Basically, music video editing is all about accuracy and precision. The aim is to match the video with the music lyrics and beat. 

 The life saving main tool that help me a lot in identifying the music and video was the "marking" tool. I would mark parts of the video that fit the lyrics of the music. 

This is the mark tool

What I did was mark certain times of cuts and lip sync movements that matched the tune. For example, the sentence "Like the legend of the phoenix". I would mark the time where the guy moves his lips to make the "L" sound, then would drag the video into my main editing bar to do cuts and movements like seen below.

I found this task easy because of the editing software Premiere. However, there were often challenging moments when I have to get the beat and rhythm of the music correct. Furthermore, the lyrics and music are sometimes dragged in a tad bit early or a tad bit late, and it is challenging to rearrange the video and music sequence to match the correct time.

Here is my final product!

Research: Technical Analysis

Music Video: Technical Analysis

Research: Music Video Conventions

Music Video Conventions

A recap to Media Studies AS level; we learnt about the conventions of media as being the semiotic. They signify certain things that are suppose to create a certain genre of media. For example a horror movie; One convention that signifies a Horror movie would be a jump scare. Without one, it wouldn't be considered a horror movie.

Now, in terms of a music videos, there are also different conventions in order for the audience to identify the certain genre. A perfect example will be a boyband.

The Google Slide below shows the convention, methods and how they were applied in boyband music videos.

">https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LqIw4RTt7CMhffOILIUN50qb1M5wVPMMb7MnIUKEXrs/edit?usp=sharing

For the second slide, I worked with George Healey, my classmate on a slide discussing the conventions of rap music. This genre was a difficult genre to tackle because it is a really wide topic with different styles according to the rapper. 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17wVOuapO1HkKZfcKux4NPiJoGHE7bkga7gwnmLrgOGY/edit#slide=id.p

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Research: Music Video Theory: Andrew Goodwin

Theory of Music Videos

A theorist Andrew Goodwin pointed out that for a video t become a music video, it must follow most of these points and functions:

1) Visuals and lyrics have a relationship, visuals and lyrics must illustrate, amplifies or contradicts. It means that the video itself and the lyrics that the artist is singing must have a relationship with each other in terms of ideal and the main point of the song.

2) Visuals and music share a relationship, they either illustrate, amplify or contradict. Similar to the first point, the video and music must have a certain relationship. It could be controlled by the artist e.g; movements of the artist follow the beat of the music. The artist must show "control" and "dominance" over the music video itself. 

3) Genres are complex and diverse in terms of musical video style and iconography.  Basically, the genre of the music video has its own stereotype which gives the audience the ability to identify what kind of genre the artist is trying to use. For example; pop music must have choreography, guys dancing, love scenes etc and rap music must have a "struggle" plot of the storyline in some or scenes of partying, alcohol, drugs and girls twerking.

4) Record companies will demand close-ups of artist or vocalists;  If an artist is lip-syncing in the music video, then there will be close up shots of the artist and the camera will always focus on the singer. However, if it is a boyband, then there will be equal camera focusing on all members. But eventually, there will be close-ups of the single member that stands out the most. A given example would be One Direction; at the end of the song "What makes you beautiful", the camera does a close-up shot on Harry Styles. They do this to let fans know that he is the most good looking member of the boyband.

5) Voyeurism is present in music videos; especially viewing in women, and in terms of system of looking;  There will be close ups to sexual parts of women or "explicit love scenes" that will "turn on" the viewers, attracting a larger audience. If the artist is a women, some of the time, they are told to "seduce" the viewers with dance moves, camera action etc. 

6) Music videos contain intertextual references to TV shows, film and other music videos;  Music videos most of the time contain references to other forms of media. What can also be common is the artist addressing names of media icons and stars. Music Videos are also made sometimes to be under the soundtrack of movies. 

Example 1: Fancy: Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX




1) Point 1: The lyrics that Iggy sings match the whole context of the song which talks about a person being 'Fancy' or 'posh'. An example of her lyrics that point out the obvious would be: "I'm so fancy, you already know". 

2) Point 2: Iggy Azalea controls the song, she steps according to the rhythm and base of the song. There is one point in the video which clearly expresses her 'controlling the song' is when the video and music slows down as she flicks her hair in the club.

3) Point 3: We can identify that it is a music with a pop/ hip hop genre when there is a mixture of synchronised choreography of the cheerleaders, the 'party scene' and twerking. 

4) Point 4: The camera focuses on Iggy Azalea every time she opens her mouth. Moreover, there is a mixture of the factors in point 5 with point 4 in this music video. When Iggy, does a sexual dance move, there is a close-up shot of her body parts that follow the men's system of looking. Also, this music video has a featuring artist, Charli XCX, who gets equal amount of camera focusing as Iggy. However, what makes Iggy stand out more is her presence in all of Charli's closeups which keeps the audience in note that Charli isn't the main artist in this MV. 

5) Point 5: Like mentioned in point 4, Iggy throws in sexual dance moves to seduce the audience into watching more of the video.  ''

6) Point 6: This music video is inspired by the movie "Clueless". This is evident in the first scene of the school where Iggy wears the exact replica of clothing that the main character of "Clueless" wore in the movie. 


Example 2: Love the Way You Lie- Eminem ft. Rihanna




Probably one of my most favourite music videos of all time, I would never get bored of this music video and would watch it again sometime. Love the Way you lie follow the Andrew Goodwin points:

1) Point 1: The lyrics in this song describes the feeling of how conflict in love is about. The lyrics matches the actions that the characters make. Like when the boy abuses Megan Fox by hitting her and smashing her into walls. Furthermore, the lyrics in the song is like a flame igniting in the heart of the actors in the MV. Therefore, there are flames within the frame of the video shooting and a house that is on fire.

2) Point 2: Parts of the visuals and the music shares a relationship. Eminem is one of the artists that frequently edits in his voice into characters so it gives a feeling as if Eminem was speaking on behalf of Megan Fox and the actor of the MV. Moreover, there is a part when there is the rest in the tune. Megan Fox's eyes match the exact timing the music stops. 

Point 3: We can identify that this music video is a Rap music video is because of the presence of the artist itself. The outfit that Eminem wears matches a rapper. A tank top, a small necklace, not to mention the stiff and strong movements Eminem makes clearly shows that he is rapping and the quick hand gestures match the rhythm of his rap.

Point 4: The camera focuses on Eminem the most, moreover, it zooms in to Eminem and cameras are shot at different angles as well. We can identify that Rihanna is featuring in this music video because of how Eminem is seen in the background whilst the camera is shot at Rihanna. What makes this MV different to Iggy Azalea's is that it has a story, as a result, the amount of time the camera is shot with Eminem, Rihanna and the characters are split evenly. However, Eminem has more lyric minutes which clearly shows that he made the song. 

Point 5: The main reason this music video attract viewers other than Eminem is Megan Fox. She is the pinnacle of beautiful women. So the camera is shot in angles where Megan is sleeping and the voyeurism is seen when Megan Fox is curved up and wears small clothing. Also, there are sexual interaction scenes in the MV as well which attracts more viewers and making them want to watch longer. 

Point 6: This music video uses hollywood actors like Megan Fox who plays in Transformers and Ninja Turtles and Dominic Monoghan who was a mutant in X-men Origins: Wolverine.

1) Lyrics and Visuals

Illustration: In this section, we will identify a music video that has a clear connection between the lyrics. A clear example would be Colonel Abrams' Trapped lyrics, where the visuals in the music video shows the lyrics of his song, literally mentioning things like "I'm trapped, like a fool I'm in a cage" this was where the visuals in the video shows him being trapped in a cage. That aside, back to the 21st century, the main song that I am going to highlight is Nick Jonas' song "Close" featuring Tove Lo. Where the "magnetic effect" that attracts Tove Lo and Nick together matches his lyrics and the title of the song. He mentions the word "close" a lot as well in the song. The word "close" acts as the trigger word; whenever Nick sings "Close" with his overly high pitched voice, the editing of the video will attract Nick and Tove Lo in together. 

Contradict: This is when, the lyrics and music do not relate to one another. A perfect example will be Rich Chigga's (Brian Emmanuel) Dat Stick. This is a rap music video, however the lyrics and the singer don't match the "stereotype" of a rap video. Rap videos suppose to have artist wearing shiny chains and dark coloured clothing most of the time. However, Brian Emmanuel was wearing a buttoned up pink polo shirt with a fanny pack on his waist whilst rapping next to his asian friends who are dressed "rapper" like.

Amplify: This next music video is one that I have recently came across. I tried listening to a wider range of rappers other than Kendrick Lamar and Eminem, so I came across J Cole. His song "She Knows" was stuck in my ear, not only with its smooth tune to a rap song but also the deep message that it gave in the music video. J Cole's song "She Knows" was part of his album "Born Sinner" which was released in 2013. This album really highlighted strongly on J-Cole's fight against his habits as being "unfaithful". It means that he cheats on his girlfriend a lot with other girls and in this song, he tries to fight the temptation of being unfaithful by creating a music video that sees being "unfaithful" to a whole new level. 

He tries to see his act in the wider field by imagining himself being in the position of the a "son" who is a victim of where the son's mother is cheating on his father with J-Cole himself. The lyrics that J-Cole raps out slowly progresses to the audience's realisation, lyrics like; "know i got a girl back home, tryna be the man that she wants" and the repetition of "she knows" progresses later in the video. The audience needs to listen to the song more than once to understand the picture, but some can identify it straight away in the music video.

THE LYRICS MAY BE A BIT EXPLICIT:




2) Music and Visuals

Illustrate: For this to be achievable, the tune of the song and the video must relate, as if the artist is controlling the functions of the music. Changing its tone, rhythm, pitch, bass dropping, etc. A perfect example would be "Purple Lamborghini" by Skrillex and Rick Ross. The dubstep rhythm and beats of the song controls the camerawork of the video making it shaky most of the time. There are a plethora of angle changes as well as the EDM style of music progress. A particular iconic scene in the music video would be when the Joker moves his head and changes emotions as the bass drops. 




Contradicts: When the music and the visuals don't match i.e; the visuals have a slow pace where as the music is rather fast. This agenda is common to the "contradicting" of visuals and music. A music video that does not match its visuals would be Taylor Swift's song "Everything has Changed" featuring Ed Sheeran. The tempo of the music throughout is fast, however the video is shot and edited in a slight slower motion, slowing down the pace of the video by a quarter to distant the difference in pace of visual and music. 

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