Preliminary Task Lip Syncing

Today I was tasked with getting footage of myself and two other students mouthing the lyrics to Busted's, 'What I Go To School For' in order to practise editing the footage to the actual song and syncing our lips up to the song. We did this by playing the song while recording so that we could sing along to the lyrics more accurately, and used cue cards with the lyrics so that we would know what to say ahead of time. We initially captured footage of all three of us mouthing the first few verses and chorus of the song, and while we have only just recently exported the footage into movie maker, we have already undergone some minor editing, like syncing some of the video up to the music so that the mouthing is accurate, however we still have a lot more editing to do in coming lessons if we want to finish this prelim task.

Types of Muisc Vidoes

The three different types of music video refer to their narrative content rather than their style.

1. Narrative-The narrative style of music video follows a fixed narrative story that mostly but not always follows the story told by the lyrics. However the narrative doesn't always need to follow the lyrics, as some song with no or minimal lyrics may have a narrative type music video, as it is the very existence of the contextual story with a beginning middle and end that defines a music video as a narrative.
2. Performance-This is the most simple type of music video, as it is simply the band or artist performing their song in front of the camera, often times with very few theatrics. There is still variety however as this can vary from simple footage from a live performance or a more staged set up in an environment that suits the tone of the song. Either way, if it is simply the band preforming the song, it is a performance type video.
3. Conceptual-The conceptual type of music video often bares little relationship to the lyrics of the song and is simply a series of entertaining visuals that compliment the music they are set to and have little relevance. Because of this, many dance albums use a conceptual style of music video as dance music as a genre is less about context and more about just creating stimulating music.
4. Animated-Animated music videos are, as the title implies is animated. This can be through any means of animation, like hand drawn, stop motion, or combination with live actions footage through methods like rotoscoping.
5. Mixture-While the above four types of music videos are established, very few music videos conform to only one, and most music videos can be classed as a mixture of two or even three of these types. Some examples could include 'I Got U' by Duke Dumont which, while mostly consisting of a conceptual style due to the abstract visuals, is in some ways a narrative as well because of the first few scenes that establish a main character and why we are seeing the visuals. Other examples include 'Bohemian Rasphody' by Queen which combines conceptual and performance typesof video. Finally, 'Feel Good Inc.' by the Gorillaz is a music video that combines the animated and performance types of video.

Busted 'What I Go To School For' Music Video Analysis

As part of my research for my music video production task, I need to have an understanding of how many different shots go into making a music video, what will help me get a better understanding of both the filming and editing process. In order to do this I have been assigned a prelim task to create a shot-for-shot remake of the first 90 seconds of Busted's 'What I go to School for' music video. In preparation for this task I have counted all of the shots and edits in the first 90 seconds of the trailer, which culminate at approximately 42 shots. Knowing this I can begin thinking about how I am going to recreate the trailer and how many different shots I will need.

Six Conventions of a Music Video

'Ever since the popularisation of music videos with the release of "Video Killed the Radio Star" on the burgeoning MTV, similar themes and conventions have been visible in almost all music videos to follow, This conventions have been summed up by Andrew Goodwin as the six conventions of music videos.

A relationship between lyrics and visuals to illustrate, amplify or contradict the video to the music-As previously stated, most music videos follow at least one of these conventions, so not all music videos follow these conventions. However almost all music videos follow this convention. Either illustrating amplifying or contradicting the music they are set to (more often than not this involves the lyrics). An example of this is Miles Kane's 'Don't Forget who you are' illustrates this within the first few seconds, as Miles visually pulls his clothes as he references them in the lyrics.


Visuals that are edited in time with the lyrics and beats-This is in some ways similar to the first convention in that it is an existing correlation between the music and the visuals. However while the first convention is more contextual this is more about visually matching the video to the music and lyrics directly as apposed to the first convention which could be more symbolic. A good example of this is the music video for 'Do I wanna know?' by the Arctic Monkeys which is animated to the beat and instruments of the music as well as the vocals.


Genre related style and iconography-This is were music videos become distinct and different from one another, as just as different genres of music are recognisable on their own, so are their respective music videos, and each different genre of music's music video follows a different style and its own codes and conventions. For example, while voyeurism is a general trope of music videos, it applies more so to R&B music videos than others as these songs often focus on a sexualised woman, or indie music videos that are often the simplistic performance style of video, reflecting the relative lack of theatrics in the indie genre.


Multiple close ups of the main artist/vocalist-Aside from dance music videos in which the main artist is not often very iconic, this is commonplace in virtually all music videos as the main artist/ vocalist becomes more iconic through media like music videos.


Voyeurism-Voyeurism more so applies to female artists than male ones due to the male gaze theory. It involves an attractive female (often times the artist herself) who is made to be a sexual object as part of the video. An example of this would be the music video for 'Can't Remember to Forget you' by Shakira.


Intertexual references to other media text -This simply means anything within the music video that references another piece of media, like a film, book or even another song. This is found more often than not in music videos with a comedic feel. A good example of this is Bruno Mars' 'Treasure' music video which clearly pays homage to disco, funk and R&B music videos of the 70's

Introduction Post

I have been tasked with creating a music video featuring a fictional band but using a pre existing song, as well as two ancillary media products that could be a website homepage for my fictional band, a digipak for my fictional bands album or a magazine advert for said digipak. On top of this, I will complete an evaluation of all three products when they are completed. While the music video will be created as part of a group task, the ancillary media products and evaluation must be completed by myself as an individual. I will also need to put a lot of time into research and planning before I begin to create my products, such as identifying my products genre and target audience, analysing other music video's and media products to learn the codes and conventions of said genre, and planning ahead of time what type of footage I need as well as planning locations and props that may be required before filming.