Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Jazz

• Jazz music videos tend to contain bright lighting. This could be because of the type of music. Jazz music tends to be very upbeat and the lighting would work with that. Another reason could be because is the artist wants to see everything that is going on.
• Jazz artists clothing generally consists of them wearing very smart clothing such as wearing suits. This shows that they are classy and sharp and show their class within society.
• Filming locations of jazz music videos tend to be in street scenarios or in run places. This could be because jazz artists want themselves to stand out from everything. This is done by them wearing a suit and filming in a run down area. Another reason why jazz artists film in streets and run down areas could be because they want themselves to be seen as if they was a normal person who lives in a street with a normal day to day job.
• Sometimes jazz music videos can be filmed in large open areas. This could be because they want their videos to represent the freedom to move about or they use the space for the purpose of their ideas.

Lewis Gollop

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Folk

• Lighting of the music video is generally very dark. The lighting is usually focused on the main artist/s. This could be because the lighting only wants you to focus on the artist/band and not on the background.
• Folk music videos usually contain close up shots of the artists/bands face/s and instruments. This could be because the artist/s want the audience to recognise their faces if they are seen again. They may take close ups of instruments because they want to show the audience that they play their instruments.
• Folk music videos tend to have a lot of black and white shots to them. This could be because folk music sounds very old and they want the video to coincide with each other. Another reason could be that the genre wants to stand out from other music videos and genres, they want to be unique.
• Folk music tends to be over exaggerated meaning that folk artists tend to go over the top with their music and can be very loud and very fast. For example Mumford and Sons.

Lewis Gollop

Shots that could be used for our music video

As I knew I would be using the train on a trip out I had last week, I discussed with the group beforehand if it would be useful to shoot a few train scenes for our music video as we had already talked about perhaps getting some train scenes in there.

They agreed and so I did take a few shots. Some are of the outside of the train and some are from the inside of the train. If we use any of these shots, we will obviously take out the sound so that it doesn't interfere with the song and/or the video itself.  Here are the shots that I managed to shoot;

Katie Tancred

Music Genres Codes and Conventions - Dance

• Dance music is generally upbeat. This could be because dance songs are used in happy environments so dance would music would further increase the emotions.
• The music videos of dance songs tend to be rather fun and have a quirky sort of style to them. This could be because dance artists want their videos to look unique compared to other types of genres. It could also be because dance musicians want their audience to have fun whilst watching their music videos.
• Dance songs generally have a dance routine to their videos. This would link in to a dance songs, also a well choreographed dance routine can be very impressive so dance artists want their viewers to enjoy watching their videos and to be wowed.
• The dancers performing the dance routine will generally be wearing the same type of outfits. This could be because if the artist is wearing a different outfit then they wouldn't want to look the same as you wouldn't be able to tell who is who. Another reason why the dancers where the same outfits could be because if every dancer is wearing the same outfit then you would be able to tell that they are the dancers.
• The colours in the video tend to very bright and colourful. This could be because dance artists want their music videos to be lively and fun to watch. Bright colours could also make people feel happier and bright colours also make the video seem more interesting. Bright colours can also make the music video seem different to other genres which generally use very dull colours in their music videos.
• The type of environment that dance songs are set in is usually party settings. This could be because party settings allow the dance routine to happen. Another reason why dance songs are set in party environments could be because parties are usually where dance songs are made.

Lewis Gollop

Time Lapse

During our video, at some point we wanted to include a time lapse of cars driving at night as well as the sky. This shows how the people features in our video want to be free as well as shows the passing of time.
Here we found a good example video we found which would be a good start to planning this section of the video. However, our aim was originally to have this time lapse still being shot down from a bridge so its a birds eye view but we all agree that we like this style as well.

 

Editing Techniques

Here, I will show some editing techniques that I think we probably could use in our music video.

• There will be a few Short Cuttings/Flash Cuttings (a cut that has a brief duration). Especially where we are planning to do a quick Shot Reverse Shot.

• They will be quite a bit of Cross Cutting (editing that alternates shots between two or more lines of action happening in different places)

• At the end, we could use a slow fade out. I quite like the idea of when the lower and higher class meet at the end, the scene slowly fades out.

Katie Tancred

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - R'n'B

• Lots of R'n'B music videos tend to have a lot of close ups of the artist/s. this could be because the artist want to promote themselves and so that people recognise their face/s.
• The music videos tend of have a lot of use of special effects. This could be because that R'n'B artists want to make the videos look fancy and give a certain flair to their videos that no other genre may use.
• The environment for these kind of music videos tends to be in a house with a massive party going on in the background. This could be because R'n'B artists do not have a care in the world and go around having parties all the time.
• In R'n'B music videos money can be seen extensively. This point can be related to the last one. R'n'B artists have so much money that they spend of insanely expensive things that they don't necessarily need. 
• Most R'n'B music videos tend not to have much input from the artist throughout the video. The music video tends to contain more of a narrative than the artist. This could be because the song may need more of a video than the artist so that if fits in with the video.
• R'n'B music videos sometimes have a narrative. This means that some songs within the R'n'B genre have a meaning behind. Narratives do happen in R'n'B music videos but it is not that common.
• Some R'n'B music videos have a dance routine. This could be because a lot of R'n'B songs have parties in the background so they may want to get the people to dance. Well choreographed dance routines can also be very impressive so R'n'B artists may do this to wow their audience.

Lewis Gollop

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Rap

- Celine Dior

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Indie

- Celine Dior

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Hip-Hop

• A lot of hip-hop songs are usually set in a party environment. This could be because that the artists who create the videos don't care about life and just have parties all the time.
• A lot of hip-hop music videos such as Eminem tend to have a lot of shots of them in their music video. This could because that hip-hop artists don't put much money into their music videos so they just use themselves or that they don't put much effort to go out to places to shoot their music videos. Another reason why hip-hop artists use themselves in their music videos is because they want people to recognise their faces and so they can promote themselves.

• A lot of hip-hop artists wear branded clothing which looks very casual. This could be because that hip-hop artists don't care what they wear and don't take pride in what they wear so they just wear any clothing. Another reason why hip-hop artists wear casual clothing is that they want to look like normal everyday people, they want to blend in with the crowd.
• The main object in hip-hop music videos is money. This may be the main object because hip-hop artists have so much money that they do not care about it. Another reason could be because of the amount of money they just throw it around and spend it on ridiculous items.
• A lot of hip-hop music videos feature items such as cars, mansions, jewellery and alcohol. this could be related to the previous point. Hip-hop artists have so much money that they spend it on insanely expensive items.
• Some hip-hop music videos contain other artists in their videos despite the fact they might not sing in the video. This might be because the artist may fit better in the type of music video or they might be trying to promote other artists.

Lewis Gollop

Auteur Theory

Auteur Theory

The Auteur Theory is a theory of film making in which the director is viewed as the main creator in a motion picture. 

It became apparent in the late 1940's in France and was named by an American film critic, Andrew Sarris. The theory had been inspired from the cinematic theories by Andre Bazin and Alexandre Astruc. The Auteur Theory largely came from Astruc's explanation of the idea of the 'camera-pen'.

The Theory believes that the director, who oversees all audio and visual elements of a motion picture, is more to be considered the "author" of the movie, rather than the writer of the screenplay. Basically certain visual elements such as; camera placement, blocking, lighting and scene length convey the message of the film rather than the plot line.

To be classified as an "auteur", according to Sarris, a director must show efficient technical knowledge in his technique, personal style in terms of how the movie looks and feels, and interior meaning.

A Music Video Director that uses the Auteur Theory

Hype Williams

Hype Williams was born in July 1970 in New York, USA as Harold Williams. He is a music director and was very well known for his music videos in the 90's.

 His style was using editing techniques and effects such as fish-eye lens work, saturated colours, wide framing, cinematic references and slow motion sequences. He is considered as the strongly influential hip-hop music director of the 90's. Although he is quite well known in this decade too for certain artists such as Kayne West, Nicki Minaj and Pharell Williams.

In 1996 he received the Billboard Music Video Award for Best Director of the year as well as the Jackson Limo Award for best Rap Video of the year

And in 1998 he received the MTV Video Music Award in the Best Rap Video category for Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It".

In 2006, he won a BET Award for Best Director for Kanye West's "Gold Digger".

He works a lot with Kayne West nowadays. In fact, as of 2014, Kayne West holds the artist record for working the most times with Hype Williams. They both have collaborated on twenty music videos, beginning in 2005 with the music video for "Diamonds from Sierra Leone".

Katie Tancred

Script - First Draft

CD Cover analysis Lorde Pure Heroine

• Stage name of the artist. The font is very basic and easy to read.
• The name of the CD. Once again the font is very basic and easy to read.
• The background has no image which is unusual because most CD covers have an image of themselves or artwork from the group/person.
• The font is in white whilst the background is black meaning that it is much easier to read.
  
• The background is once again black which is continuing the theme from the front cover.
• The writing is once again very bold and very easy to read.
• Barcode of the CD.
• The font is white and the background is black which is the same format as the CD cover. This also means that the text is easier to read.
• Production details of the album.
• Record companies
• This piece of artwork could be famous piece of art or could be an artist’s interpretation of Lorde.
 Lewis Gollop

Cd Front Cover Analysis- School Reunion The 80's

Katie Tancred

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Metal

- Celine Dior

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Rock

- Celine Dior

Music Genre Codes and Conventions - Pop

- Celine Dior