When making our slideshow in the group for our brand, i have been able to explore the concept of ‘branding’ and the importance of coherent marketing messages across platforms. We have created a brand for our music video, this has helped to promote the identity of the star image (Dyer) and the music video. By creating an identity for the star image this allows the audience to see the star as ordinary or extraordinary. The slideshow also give information on the mise-en-scene that is going to be used, this is important for the pre- production as it gives the style, lighting and mood of the video, as well it makes it easier to follow the brands vision by doing this.
The brand can be promoted through coherent marketing which is integrated advertising using multiple social media platforms, this allows the audience to create a visual link between the digipack, music video and social media page. The usage of these three different social media platforms allows the product to reach a wider audience, which helps to create a bigger fan base.
In our branding we have included the mission statement for the star image. The mission statement helps to promote their brand and how they are going to be presented.
I have created my individual pitch by doing it, this has helped me to created a potential narrative, performance and mise-en-scene for a music video. The planning of mise-en-scene has helped to create a visual idea of the music video.
If this pitch got chosen I would use a montage as it creates a sense of emotion and because of the quick pace it resembles conflict and tension. As well the narrative would be disjunctive as it would switch between different clips and stats of emotions which helps to create an emotional connection between the music video and the audience.
In this I have also considered including synaesthesia as this connect different sensory like sound and visual, this helps to create emotional response from the audience, as this connects the audience deeper with the music video like including the colour red when its talking about love or when the tone of the song is low use dim lighting.
I have chosen 3 music videos which convey a strong narrative and I have explored how a narrative can be inspired by a song through each of them.
Bruno mars- Grenade
The narrative of this video is his struggle and he tells a girl he would do anything for her so is seen in the music video going as far as dragging a piano to get to her just so he could sing for her but arrives and sees she is with another man.
The music video is mainly episodic with moments from the past presented in flashbacks. It also conveys a strong thematic message of love.
This video can have an emotional impact on how the audience feels after watching it, which can make them want to watch it over again as this creates an emotional connection with audience as the narrative is powerful. And revisiting emotional content can sometimes help for themselves to process their own feelings.
The audience may feel relatable to the video as the narrative is showing the pain of loving someone who does not love you back which can mirror anyone who has experienced this, also allows them to feel a deeper connection to the star as they feel they have been through similar problems.
Cyndi Lauper- Girls just want to have fun.
The narrative aligns withe the song perfectly showing off the carefree and feminist message of the song through story telling. The music videos show Cyndi Lauper and a group of women embracing a wild care free night and having fun.
The music video is thematic as it focuses in on a message of women’s freedom and joy. The video highlights the songs messages.
After watching this music video the audience is supposed to feel empowered and joyful as it creates a sense of freedom. The audience may want to re-watch this video as it has good energy, and is catchy in order to draw people into listening to it.
The Lumineers- “Stubborn love”.
The official music video tells a powerful narrative about love and loss, it features a child on a car journey watching the world go past.
This music video is episodic as it uses key clips to convey a message to the audience.
The audience is supposed to feel empathy as it uses the emotions of struggle and loss.
By being able to look through other music videos I have explored how a narrative can be inspired by a song and how specific elements of some music videos help to create emotions and connection between the audience and video. As well as what draws them back in to re-watch the video. This has helped me to develop my own ideas for when I create my music video as I am able to use similar techniques that I thought have worked well in other music videos.
The narrative style was illustrative and showed the lyrics on screen in parts of the music video. This worked well as it draws attention to specific parts of the lyrics. The mise-en-scene worked well to show the genre they were going for, with the costume as well as the bold eye make up enhances their expressions and emotions, and also stands out.
The camera is used well with the close ups and the star connects eye contact with the camera as this breaks the fourth wall making it feel personal to the audience. This also shows that the star image has confidence.
3 areas that could have been improved– and how and evidence with a snip tool screen shot.
The shots used are mostly all close ups and there is little variety in the types of shots that have been used.
She needs a variety of shots like long shots as this will show her costume.
Didn’t have a strong narrative and was mostly performance.
Many of the shots are repeated as it is filmed in a studio so it is more difficult to have a wide variety of shots, a majority of the shots used were close ups which gets repetitive.
There is little narrative in this music video , as is a strong performance aspect to it. This video prioritises the visual aspect which focus on the mise-en-scene of the video.
The star images values and beliefs get represented through the connection she has with the camera and media as well as their styling and visual identity.
The video has been filmed in a studio, which they have been able to make work although videos outside of a studio can often be better, especially if the location matches the theme and emotions of the songs as this creates a stronger emotional connection with the video. The star image has been styled around the genre of the music video which is pop.
In this task I have been able to understand the technical conventions of music videos like editing, camera shots, mise-en-scene, narrative and performance. All of these help to construct how the star image is conveyed to the audience.
All music videos have a relationship between the song and the narrative this can be done in three different ways-
Illustration – The narrative in the video very closely echoes the lyrics and music.
Amplification- Narrative inspired by the song, adds a new element to amplify the themes.
Disjuncture- The narrative has very little relationship to the song.
Music videos can be either narrative, performance or a combination. Although they shouldn’t have a clear beginning, middle and end as this decreases the repeatability of the video.
Dyers theory suggest that a star image can be ordinary or extra-ordinary, this allows the audience to relate to the star image and feel a personal connection to them as well as aspiring to be like them. Like Beyoncé who is a talented, confident , and passionate artist who people aspire and long to be like so she is seen as extraordinary.
