Research into Music conventions

Research Into Music Conventions

For this task, I was set to research a few music videos/songs and analyze how the video was filmed in order to fit the mood of the song and bright about an effect. I choose the R&B genre because, in my opinion, this type of music is the most trans-formative meaning that it constantly changes with both rhythm and style. My songs are from the 2010s because, at this point in the music industry, a lot of new flows have been discovered.

Originally I planned to have 5 different songs in my analyzing video but I thought the video itself should not be more than 4-5 minutes. After I decided which songs I was going to include, I started to write up all the things I was going to mention and the why they had an impact on the audience. Then I started recording myself to measure the length of the audio and how long it would take to go through the details of the music video. The more research I've had, the longer it took to put the audio over the music video. This would've meant a longer video and therefore, I decided to ignore two of the songs I've had which included 'Uptown Funk' by Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars as well as 'Thrift Shop' by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

My Chosen Songs

'Party Rock Anthem' by LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock

The very first song I've considered was 'PRA' because every time I listened to it in the past, I always felt energetically connected with it because of the multiple lighting compositions, artificial lights, angles and the narrative behind the story. It's not necessarily about what the real meaning was behind the song, but mainly how it was interpreted because that's so much more meaningful in my opinion.

When I started to analyze the music video, it was obvious to me that the number of cuts seemed to match with the pace of the beat which is how the singing and the video was converged. This helped me to the view the song from a different perspective. After I realized how the directors tried to put together the music video using the song's energy, I also started to see that the camera was constantly placed near the movements of the characters in the video and the camera was not only moved smoothly but constantly around the atmosphere. This is not because it was obvious, but the method of how the directors applied this technique to add more tension to the video was particularly special and well done. 

'Get Lucky' by Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams

The second video I started analyzing looked quite old and not only on purpose making it more spectacular and interesting in my opinion. Also, the song that came with it had a Disco style bringing back the style of the '70s and '80s as I've mentioned in my own video.

Although I chose songs from the same decade, I thought it would be better to try songs with different paces to see which ones have the greatest effect on the audience and also why. After I finished analyzing 'PRA', I started thinking of 'Get Lucky' as being different from the other disco songs because this one not only sounded original, but it also looked like one. For example, the types of things which made the duo performers look more intense is the fictional clothing of the masks and the fancy looking instruments which in comparison to the background were dreamlike. The sounding of the instruments was relaxing due to the smooth chords and the consistent pattern.

'Happy' by Pharrell Williams

Finally, I included 'Happy' because this song always made me feel happy and I thought it would be better to include something that has a strong emotional connection between the audience and then the song itself since I'm part of this audience. The song on its own already sounded extremely powerful due to its message but with the music video, it became even more emotional and relatable as many different types of people have been included in the video. The facial expressions of the actors have truly expressed an honest message of what it's like to be happy and free. When I was watching the music video I could feel the tension so it was more important to me than any other ones to analyze. 

Editing + Recording Audio

After all, the research has been collected and I knew what I wanted to talk about, I started to download the clips from YouTube using an MP4 converter which enabled to turn the YouTube link into an MP4 file so that I could load the video into Premiere Pro. The videos were exported as 480p which was not the best quality, but otherwise, I would've not been able to download the video because of the program.

The types of transitions that I have applied to my video include the fade in and out effect of the volume of the audio because it helped to control the mood. In other words, it would've sounded too unnatural if I would've just switched from scene to scene without raising and then lowering the volume. I also applied a fade from black to the screen both at the start and at the end because this gave a more dramatic entrance as well as the exit to the video. I applied the razor tool to be able to cut off bits from the video. Finally, the text was added just to make it clear what I was talking about and also because it made it appear much more professional.

Once everything was completed fully, I deleted the MP4 versions of the original music videos before I actually exported the edited version of the videos combined from Adobe Premiere Pro which meant that all the videos were unable to be played because their original source was lost. This meant that I had to download the music videos again and insert them again, however, because I didn't want to waste my time I thought it would be better to look into more detail of how I could download the videos in 1080p so they would look much better the next time. Luckily, I was able to find a program that was able to export the YouTube video in that quality and I inserted the videos as planned so everything worked out by the end.

My Video

 

My Opinion

In my point of view, the final version of my video has a fine quality audio and its clear enough to understand but it could've been better quality. About the quality of the videos that I had to save to an MP4 file, I think they've been put into the video well enough because it was clear to see what was happening. I focused a lot on making sure that my recordings were matching the actions happening on the screen or the objects meaning that whatever I was talking about was being played on the screen at the same time to demonstrate what I've meant. After this, whatever I've analyzed looked more obvious and made it easier to understand.

The First ever music video 

This video is called ''Gus Visser and his Singing Duck'' and it was filmed in June 1925. Although it was supposed to be a music video and the first one to be made, a lot of people just call it ''an American short musical comedy film''. This was filmed so that the director Theodore Case could test the quality of the sound of the recording. 

The video was shot in black & white because at the time coloured recordings were not possible to make. Even though this was the only option to use, it had a major effect on the audience in my opinion because of the changing brightness of the character and the duck which seemed to put a clear focus on the character and the importance of the animal. The table near the main character has also raised a few questions about what its use was. Also, the duck quacks every time the word ''Ma'' is said, sounding the same as ''Ma''. 

As the first official music video ever, the story seemed to be very interesting and two-sided whereas the atmosphere was empty. However, the mood of the song was quite uplifting due to the high pitch and the types of instruments used. I think the table was put in the background just to adjust the mood of the atmosphere and to make the scene appear less lonely as a result of the dark background. I particularly liked the fact that the duck was trained to quack on time because of it made it sound imaginative and different from those music videos that are made in these days. Although it was filmed almost a century ago, it still has features that no modern music video has which is the abstract meaning that brings special emotions to the viewer.

The Questionnaire

After I've finished my research on the first music video, I started creating a questionnaire based on questions about the first music video I've chosen (''Part Rock Anthem'') to get an insight into what people thought about those things that I included in my own video.

These questions were relevant to ask in my opinion because they were closely related to the success of the video and how it has managed to surprise audiences. Since I'm asking several people with different opinions, it will be clearer to see what had a major influence on all of their opinions. 

The first question which is -''What do you think was the narrative of the story?'' questions the viewer of how logically the scenes were shot since the content of each scene is what alters what the audience will think of the story-line. Most people answered that the narrative was a mix between a music and a zombie apocalypse and just letting the music take over the world because it's so powerful. Moving on to the second question, I wanted it to consist of more than just a yes or no, but also an explanation as it reasoned the answer which in this case helps to go into more detail. Most people answered yes to this question saying that the cuts and the scenes were matching although some of the scenes were longer than necessary. In relation to what interests people, the third question was the icebreaker of what was the most interesting part of the music video. All the participants answered the same thing for this question. This was when people united together and then started dancing at the same time. Finally, the last question was 'what stood out the most from the music video?' and again, most people just mentioned the beauty of the dancing an the fact that a song was able to erupt an apocalypse. 

It was important for me to conduct this type of research for my own interest as it helped me to become more disinterested of peoples opinions of music and music videos. This is due to the opinion-based evidence which gives different views of people and what they are affected by.

Party Rock Anthem