Thrift Shop - Abstract Style

This is our section of the remake of Thrift Shop. We had the abstract section, so we came up with a random and unusual idea. Abstract style music videos are one which have no relevance to the song/lyrics or the pace. 

Pre Production/Production

Pre Production

The task we were set was to produce our given section to the song 'Thrift Shop' by Macklemore. Each group was given a different section which indicated a different style. The style we had was Abstract. An abstract music video is one that has virtually no meaning to the song or it's mood/pace. Everything in it is unexpected and just random. The section we had to film was the second chorus which was about 19 seconds long. As we had the abstract section, we had to come up with a random idea that had no relevance. In the end, we chose the idea of my older cousin having a tea party with some teddy bears. After coming up with an idea we produced a shooting script so that we could follow the shots and make sure we filmed everything. The shooting script also helped us out when editing as we knew the order. It can be seen below. 




Production

After making the script we decided to start filming. We only had 13 shots to film so it didn't take us very long. We made sure we followed the script exactly and didn't leave any shots out. In about 30 minutes we had finished filming and were happy with the result.

Post Production

When we came into lesson that week, we imported the footage onto the Mac and began editing. The editing program we used was Final Cut Express. We had used this before previously when editing the opening for our BSR film, but only to add the sound in. This time we edited the whole thing with the software. After being taught the basics by our teacher, we started to edit. It was fairly simple as we knew how to edit, we just had to adapt to the new controls. One thing that I had to get used to was to keep rendering the sequence after we made any changes. After one lesson we had finished editing as we only had a small section. 
When watching the clip back we decided it wasn't as abstract and weird as we wanted it, so we started to play around with effects and see how we could make the video more abstract. We opted for a few effects; fish eye, replicate, earthquake and blur. I think all of these effects added to his state of mind, connoting how he was unwell. The fish eye effect on one of the teddy bears made him seem unwell and also the earthquake effect which made the screen shake made him seem angry. After editing we had to decide whether we wanted to export the section with effects, or the one without. In the end we chose the one with effects as we felt it looked more abstract and demonstrated our skills within editing. I was very happy with the final sequence as I felt we had made a good abstract section for the video.

After we finished editing, our teacher had given us some post-it notes to stick around our work. Written on them were the conventions of a music video that we had put into our sequence. 

One of the things we thought was important to include was a simple narrative. With a music video, you don't want the audience to get too confused in a short window of time, you want them to watch a video they can enjoy and watch again. Our narrative was quite simple, just a grown man having a tea party with teddy bears so it was pretty easy to follow and was still abstract.

Most videos have some element of lip syncing so we also decided to put it in for a short second or so. We just have the actor lip syncing 'tags' in the video. I feel like lip syncing helps connect to the song more and maybe even get the viewer singing along too. 

Because our style was abstract, one of the conventions of an abstract genre music video is having random mise-en-scene that doesn't really fit with the song. Our location was a dining room in an ordinary home, the set wasn't very abstract. The thing that made it abstract was the fact the actor was having a tea party, dressed in tracksuit bottoms and a hoodie, with teddy bears. It was a strange thing to take place in a dining room. 

I feel that camera movement within shots make the video a lot more watch-able then just still shots. For example when you see the shot of him holding a tea cup, then camera moves in slightly, giving it more an abstract feel. Also at the end, with the effect of earthquake and the camera moving down suddenly, it gives the impression that the man is angry, it makes it more interesting to watch.

A range of shots also makes a video more watch-able. If a video was just one type of shot the whole time it would get boring. Having different types of shots, especially close ups makes a video more interesting as you can pay more attention to detail. 

I think cutting to the beat is the most important in a music video. Without this, the whole edit just looks odd and messy. We paid extra attention to this convention and tried to cut exactly when the beat changed. We went back a few times to perfect this. I was very happy with how it turned out as we did well to cut to the beat. 

This is a picture of the page where we got the effects/filters from. We mainly used the Stylize section as that had the most interesting effects. I think the effects added a whole new abstract feeling to the video and made it more enjoyable to watch. 

Style and Conventions of Music Videos

Popular Genres

POP: Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass 

This is an example of a pop video. It's very clearly a pop video, mainly due to the mise-en-scene. Starting from 0:17, Meghan Trainor and the other girls in the video are dancing in colourful clothing infront of a baby pink background. This is what most pop videos look like, there are elements of bright colours and dancing. Another element of pop videos is that because the genre emphasises the actual artist more than the song, the singer is in most of the video. Meghan Trainor is almost in all of the shots of the video, apart from a few of other people dancing. 
The editing in this video, matches quite clearly to the song, when the beat changes so does the editing pace. At the end of the song at about 2:25, when she repeatedly says 'because you know im all about that bass', the shots start to change quicker, to match the pace of the song. The institution uses quite girly and pastel colours because the target audience of this song is mainly teenage girls, so it would attract them. They want to sell Meghan Trainor as an artist, so she can sell more records, so they aim to put her is most of the shots, so people will listen to other music of hers. 
The video doesn't have much impact on the audience as it's just bright colours and dancing, but the fact that it's not just extremely skinny girls in the audience may make some teenage girls feel less insecure. 
If I was to do a popular genre song, such as pop, I would take some aspects of the style, such as selling the artist. 

Performance, concert, as live 

Reckless - You Me At Six

A performance, concert or as live style of music video, has some aspect of the artist/band singing to the camera and actually performing the song. In some cases it was taken from an actual concert and in other cases they've made it look like it was a concert, but they've actually set it up. This video is a mixture of a real concert and a kind of behind the scenes of what goes on before/after the concert takes place.

This video uses the concert style quite well. When the actual song starts at 0:07, the shot goes straight into the concert style. You see most of the audience as well as the band on stage using a long shot. A lot of the shots in the video incorporate the audience in them, there are some single shots of them, and some with the band in. This helps with the concert style of the video as it tells the audience watching it was a real concert. From 3:44- 3:50, you see a shot of the audience with the band in, taken from the back of the stage. The song cuts out and you can hear the audience singing live. In the shot, the lead singer even points to the camera, showing how it wasn't a set up concert, he was telling them to look at the camera. They use camera language very well in this music video as they have a range of shots. They use long shots, close ups of the band and also mid shots. 

I really like the editing of the music video, especially one of the very first shots (0:07). When the beat actually kicks in, there's a shot of the audience with the 4 smoke machines that looks really good with the music. From there until 0:14 every time the drum hits, the shots change, they've edited it very smoothly. 

The mise-en-scene of a performance video, mainly includes all the equipment they need, the artist and the audience. There's not much else that makes it a performance style video. A good shot that shows all of this is at 3:16. 
I think the institution used the style of video as its quite a quick video to film. The band may have been on tour during the period of time they wanted to release the video, so they just got a few cameras to follow them around for behind the scenes and placed some cameras in the arena while the concert was taking place. 
The impact it has on the audience is that fans of the band feel like they want to watch them live in concert. The video portrays the band as good people to see live, so the audience watching the video will want to go see them. 
This would be a quite hard style to use in my video, as I would have to make a fake concert. People have attempted something like that before and it hasn't worked out yet. It would be hard to do this on a budget and make it look good. 
Narrative 

Maps - Maroon 5 

A Narrative video is one that tells a story with the music. It doesn't necessarily have to match with the actual lyrics, but most of them do link somehow. This video is about a couple who get into an argument because the guy kissed someone else and girl sees. She runs away from the party and gets hit by a car. This video is interesting because they play it in reverse. It starts with him running in the hospital trying to find her and ends with them getting ready for the party. Then from 3:05 to the end, it plays the video from the kissing in the right order. This video uses the style well as it tells a full story through the camera and editing. The camera language in this video helps the narrative feel more tense. Most of the shots look like they're hand held, this adds to the tension of him trying to find her and her running away as it feels like you're there with them. The handheld track beginning at 0:06 adds to the tension as it puts you in the same position as him.

I really like the editing of this video as they put it in reverse. It makes you wonder how she got there and what their relationship is. I like the graphic match at 0:52, which matches the hospital room light to the headlight on the car. 

I think the institution used this style as they want the video to be interesting and to grab the audiences attention. Maroon 5 are known for having a good narrative videos, so they kept that image up.

This has quite big impact on the audience. You feel sorry for the girl because they got all dressed up for the party, but the guy ends up being kissed by another girl. The narrative makes it quite emotional. The lyric 'I was there for you in your darkest times' links in with the story as it shows how the girl was there for the guy, but the guy ended up kissing the girl and when his girlfriend ran outside, he didn't even go and follow her. It makes the audience look at the guy in a bad light.

I would hope to use some element of narrative in my music video as I feel like it grabs the audience attention more as they want to follow the story. The type of genre would affect the type of narrative I would have, e.g a pop video is more likely to have a happy narrative compared to a rock video. 

Interpretative

The Lonely Island - Threw it on the ground

An interpretative music video is one that follows the lyrics exactly. The images on screen are word for word what the song says. The Lonely Island do this in most of their videos. Beginning at 0:36, the song talks about how he went to his favourite hot dog stand and on the screen you see the guy going to a hot dog stand and talking to the vendor. The most common interpretative lyric in this song is 'threw it on the ground'. Every time he says this, he throws something on the ground. e.g at 0:48. The interpretative style is mainly done through mise-en-scene. The artist goes to the places that he says he's at, e.g ' walking down the city street' and 'hot dog stand'. This is all done through the location. The institution use this style as the song isn't exactly a real song, it's a parody kind of song, so they've made the music video quite literal. This doesn't have much impact on the audience apart from the fact it amuses them a little, there's no real impact. I wouldn't really use this style of music video as I feel like it would look a bit odd. I prefer videos with some story and not videos that are just word for word by the lyrics.

Impressionist 

The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather

An impressionist video is one where the images on screen matches the mood and the pace of song compared to the lyrics. This style is mainly used for indie songs. This video is basically a range of different shots with not much relevance to the song, but the way they're edited fits in with the pace and mood of the song. For example when the song slows down from 1:08 - 1:22, there's only one shot in that time of a car driving on a high way. The pace of the shot matches the pace of the song. In the rest of the video where it's a little bit sped up, the shots change every time the beat hits. At 2:53, they flip the image upside down for a little instrumental bit of the song. Again, this fits in the mood and pace of the song, it's different from the rest of song, so they have a different thing on the screen. I think the institution used this style and the song and the band is quite indie and 'chill', so they would make a music video that fits in with it. With this genre of music, the audience care more about the song, rather than the video, so it doesn't matter that much what's on screen. There's little impact on the audience from this video, however it does make them feel quite relaxed as they don't have to try and follow a storyline, they can just enjoy the image on screen. I think this style of video would be good to use as it's quite interesting and simple to do it. You just need to think of shots that would fit with the mood of the song and edited them similar to the pace of it. 

Surrealism/Abstract

DJ Snake, Lil Jon - Turn Down for What

A surrealism/abstract video is one that has no relevance to the song and is just bizarre. It's very unexpected. This video is about people dancing strangely and breaking through ceilings then getting the people below them to dance with them. The whole section in the first woman's apartment from 0:23 - 1:19 is very strange. The man falls through the ceiling and starts to dance crazily on her sofa, hump her television and do the worm on the coffee table. When the woman tries to call the police, he takes the phone, says something and the police man's face on the line burns off and you just see his skull covered in muscle. The mise-en-scene helps make the video abstract, if it was set in a club or something, it wouldn't be as bad as you kind of expect that dancing, but in someone's living room, it's very strange. The institution would use this style of video as the song really only has one line, 'turn down for what', the rest is just instrumental. So they make the video strange, so that people will watch it. Usually with these types of songs, they don't really have videos, so they made the strangest video possible so that people would watch it. It leaves the audience feeling a bit confused about what they just watched, but would also amuse them in some way. I personally wouldn't use this style for my music video as I feel it would just leave the audience a bit confused, but ultimately it comes to what type of genre of music I choose. If it's a fast paced genre I would possibly do an abstract video. 

Animation

Nizlopi - JCB Song 

An animation music video is something that isn't made using typical video cameras. It can be actual animation or stop motion videos. This video is made to look like someone's drawn this on a piece of paper. I'm unsure whether it's stop motion or just digitally animated, but either way it's animated. The whole video is animated, its a drawing of a boy and his father driving around in a JCB truck. I think the institution used this style as the song itself is quite slow and the animation fits in nicely with the song. It's almost as if the boy in the song, is the one drawing the picture on the screen. It has a sort of emotional impact on the audience as it looks like the boy singing is drawing the video, so it makes them feel happy in a way as they follow the story. I think using animation in my video would be quite hard as I'm not very good at drawing and I think stop motion would be quite difficult to do for a music video. It has been done before, but I don't think I'd have the patience to do it and make it look good.

Parody 

All About That Bass - Meghan Trainor (Bart Baker Parody)

                                     

A parody video is one that mocks another video using the same or similar references from the video. This parody video is done for humour, it takes most of the shots from the video and makes them in their video, but changes the lyrics to take the mick out of the artist and the video. This parody is of Meghan Trainor's 'All about that bass'. He turns the lyrics into a song about him saying how she's not really big and that she's shaming skinny people. It's a parody as he uses virtually the same set, costume and shots. You could say it has an element of Pastiche/Homage at 1:29 as it looks like it could be a Barbie type of set, with her being Barbie and the man being Ken. The institution would use this style as they want to make fun of the artist. It impacts the audience as it amuses them and makes them laugh. I don't think I would do a parody video as it would look a bit odd for me and some people may not get the references. I would rather do a video that fits in with the music and lyrics.  

Referencing 

Paramore- Decode 

A referencing music video is one that refers to another media text in the video. It is usually done with music video that are in films. This music video references the first Twilight film. It is done by featuring shots of the film in it, like from 2:29  to 2:34 when Edward is with Bella in the woods. The mise-en-scene of the video fits in with the film. It looks like it's been shot in the same woods. Some shots are of the artists in the band acting like they're trying to find someone like at 1:26, 1:45, 2:15 and 2:27. They're all searching for something, this helps with the mystery of the film. From 2:37 to about 3:00, instead of using cuts to transition, they use fades instead. This fits in with the mood of the song at that time, it's slow, so they don't use harsh cuts. I think the institution used this style as the song is from the film, so they want to emphasise the fact that it is a soundtrack and maybe people will go to watch the film after watching the video. The impact it has on the audience is that they may want to go watch the film or from watching the film and hearing the song, they'll buy the song. I would possibly use referencing in my music video as I think, in the case of videos like Fancy by Iggy Azelea, it doesn't matter if you don't get the reference, but for people that do, it adds to the experience. So I would try to put in a small, subtle reference if I were to do so.  

Music Videos

One video I really like and think still would look great if it was released this week is 'Good Life' by Kanye West and T-Pain. I really like this video as it’s quite simple and not too flashy, but it’s still a great video. I really like the technical aspect of the editing. The graphics are so colourful and bright and every little thing on screen matches perfectly to what he says. The graphics contrast to the rest of video which is in black and white, so they really stand out. I like how they don’t have a lot of unnecessary props and too many other people, it’s just the two artists and one other woman. The editing and graphics really makes the video fit together. Although a lot of videos now tend to have more storyline based ideas, I think this video would still look good today as it's quite simple and sometimes simplicity is key.

One video I hate is 'Starships' by Nicki Minaj. The video is based on one line from the song 'lets go to the beach, each'.  I prefer to watch videos that have some relevance to the actual song, this is just her dancing around in different colour bikinis and different styles of hair. From about 3 minutes onwards, the video turns into a display of special effects. The editing goes crazy, it's too much. The costume is terrible, it’s just different colour bikinis, I guess that goes with the theme of the beach, but for a song that’s called ‘Starships’, you would expect more elements of space and sci-fi. The one thing I do like about this video is the actual type of shots, they have a wide range of shots, such as close up, mid-shots and long shots. Also, although the weird special effects are a bit much, it does fit in with the instrumental part of the song.

 

My current favourite is 'Thinking Out Loud' by Ed Sheeran. It’s not a very current song as its 9 months old, but I haven’t seen any videos after it that I really like. Again, this video is very simple, it’s just two people dancing in a dimly lit ballroom.  I love everything about this video, especially the mise-en-scene. The ballroom set design looks very fancy and it’s the perfect setting for two people in love. Even the costumes are simple but they still look very nice, they’re not over the top. I think the editing of this video was done very well as it’s almost as if you’re in the room with them, following them around, it transitions very smoothly. I think the overall idea of the video is very sweet and fits well with the song.