Final Music Video

Canute - Shark in the Water

Functions and Meanings of music and editing

"Edits in a music video come far more quickly than that of a music video... Music Video editing bears a far greater responsibility for many elements than does a classic hollywood film editing" - Carol Vernallis

Their are lots of very short, quick edits in music video. These build up a montage and very often tell a story of the video. It progresses the narrative. This can be seen in music videos such as Lady Gaga's 'Telephone'.

By using quick cuts and edits, montages are formed that can introduced the audience to many things such as, introducing the Mise - en - scene.
Throughout this music video many different types of codes and conventions that are commonly used can be identified.
Lady Gagas's telephone video is a perfect example of this.

The beginning of the video is opened by a montage of en scene shots, all of a prison. Focusing on the barbed wire a code for a dangerous enclosed space. a desolate place. Like the common convention the film title name of the artist and the video appear, making a reference to contemporary hollywood films, preferably action, with the non diegetic beat very low and basey. As we are introduce to montage, Diegetic music is being played of police sirens. A common convention of an action film, parallel this are a variety of establishing shots of the City and the jail. As we are introduced to the star of the video, (GAGA) she is shown in a very perogative and sexual outfit made of clack leather. She escorted to her cell but two female guards, of who would resemble, in the public eye, stereotypical female jail cops.
As they walk the small sounds that are made seem to make a huge impact on the scene. The foot steps of the beat are heightened, the sounds of flesh on metal, the costumes worn by the jail birds are all references to sex and the enticing of sex to the audience. The audience are made well aware of this from the very beginning, As gaga is walking down the row between these women we are put into her shoes in a point of view shot. All the time titles are appearing making the audience aware that they are not watching just a music video but a short film. As she is stripped of her clothes we are shown an establishing shot of the courtyard and the residents of the jail within it. Within this scene allot of product placement is used for brands such as Virgin Media, and Coke Cola. All the way through these scenes the regular quick cutting of shots is still used, but not as much as when the music comes in, following the style of a classic hollywood film rather than that of a main mise n stream music video. The narrative continues of gaga simply getting into the routine of prison life. The colors through out are vibrant making curtain features such as there red lips and hair alot more saturated than the Mise-en-scene around the, grey , blacks and whites etc. The costume of all of the character is the opening sequence are all very sexual and sultry.

Once gaga picks up the phone the narrative and the music become involved with each other. and obviously from the moment the music starts the music video editing and special effects really start to appear. For example on the lyrics "What, what did you say honey your breaking up on me!" A action loop occurs. The medium shot repeats the section and distorts her body movement as if she were the telephone line breaking up.  The Convention of a dace routine within a music video finally makes an appearance. A shot of the Girls and gaga dancing in the same row that we were shown at the beginning of ten video.
The dance routine is a of shots from pan to close up and medium. It also is edited to make it look like the a CCTV Camera. We then see a montage of shots of Lady gaga in Warning tape doing sever poses. This reverts back and forth for a few shots. Eventually she is released from person and we are introduced to her counter part, Beyonce. In this short clip we intertextuality has been used making reference to Velma and Louise. Sexual content is used in this scene between them with Beyonce feeding gaga a phallic food of sorts. The We are introduced to a second narrative that is associated with Beyonce's character , i the scene where Beyonce is talking to her 'lover' the narrative cuts to gaga in the kitchen where more postmodern intertextuality is used. The ingredients that she is putting into the food is listed in the screen like a video game referencing to things like 'Big Mommas Kitchen', a game played on Nintendo DS. These techniques make the audience aware that they are watching a a short film, the produces what the audience to be reminded of this constantly. The entire way through the video the clips cut back and forth to different scenes. All of these clips have Sexy, tight costumes. This seems to be the main theme of the video. Towards the end, a clip of gaga in a magazine type split scene. Again a form of intertextuality that remind the audience that they are watching a music video.

Love the way you lie - Rihanna, Eminem

Firstly this video between Rihanna and Eminem switches between the narrative and the artists. Through the entire video it has Chronological continuity, which means it has a series of shots that create a template of the relationship.
The costume in the video is a follows:

Rihanna - Red Hair, black jacket and shorts
Eminem - Vest and baggy trousers

Practice lip sync

Before we created our preliminary lip sync with editing, me and Madeline played a song and attempted to lip sync to it. From making the video we new two things for definite, we needed to make sure we new the words well enough to keep up with a rap and that we needed to create facial expressions when we sang. Obviously this is only a simple lip sync without editing and effects.
Moving on the beat is also a main factor of the music video which i tried to show through my amazing dance skills and movements.

Ghetto Gospel - Video Evaluation

This video is very different to other conventional music videos, for one thing the narrative is used throughout the video, with no introduction of the artists. This means that the audience focus mainly on the story that is the music video. The songs title 'Ghetto Gospel' is oxymoronic meaning that these two words are a representation of two completely opposite things. Ghetto is associated with dark and dangerous places high in poverty and crime and in comparison to gospel, we think of god, light, hope and peace not necessarily two words you would place together. The same appeals to the artists 2PAC and Elton John. Its a very yin yang scenario, black and white, heterosexual and homosexual, rap and pop. This is called jeux de position. You would not see a video thats lyrics speak of a nice and peaceful place and yet be shown the slums of america.

Conventions of a music video are usually seen as, artist singing along to the song, dancing, switching from them to the narrative, the artist eventually being included in the narrative, cuts in time to the music and so on.

"Music videos editing bears a far greater responsibility for many elements than does classic hollywood film editing" - Carol Vernallis.
As an example, many quick edits help build a montage of the story or helps to progress the narrative. Something you don't Generally see in contemporary hollywood films. The narrative itself is described by the lyrics of the song, ensuring that no one aspect of the music video gains the upper hand. This is also known as MTV style editing.

This music video is simply the narrative. From the very beginning we are introduced to a crime scene. The audience are able to identify this from the codes in the first shot. Diagetic sounds can be heard from helicopters and from the sirens of police cars that are all around them. Their facial expressions are all solum an obvious code for sorrow, pain and loss. Low angle shots and point of view shots are used to emphasise the movements of the crowd and of the women who is slowly moving towards a body of a man whom we may be introduced to later on in the video. We guess that the lady is a relative. Rain is used to create pathetic fallacy. As the sounds of the scene are dropped and the non-diagetic sounds of the song begin, we see the women cradelling the victim in her arms, a code which could lead the audience to believe that this is her son.

The screen then cuts and blurs, followed by a floating tilt like action which signifies that the victims soul has left his body.

The narrative then reverts back to the morning of that day. The time is shown for the audience to understand this.  The narrative and the song are still connected by the lyrics, for when the lyrics are sung "the red sun sinks at last" a red sun appears on screen. This happens throughout the video.   

The camera cuts from the same man who was killed, who is now in bed, to him sitting and eating his breakfeast at the table, with the same women (mother) who cradled him as he dies. In the Mise en scene of the image we see the picture of DaVinci's painting 'The Last Supper' code for *hint* *hint* his last supper. Cuts in the same time as the music are done throughout (common convention of a music video). The constant rhythmic bases of cuts is closely related to the song. 

The narrative then cuts to a church with and all black gang outside of it. Codes for this are their body language and costume; baggy cloths, bling, and a lot of swagger. we then see a close up of the main character and another gang member swapping a substance/object in their hands, and obvious code for drugs. once he has done this however he has a confused look upon his face, maybe signifying that he dent like what he has just done. we then cut to later on in the day where we see our main man and what seems to be his family. This tells the audience that he has something to live for. 

After a few more similar shots we see the main character standing on the top of the roof with his arms stretched out, code for freedom and space, a jeux to position from the ghetto that he is in. Various cuts are edited in the next sequence, cutting between a gang and moving lights moving in and out of the shot, code for something approaching. we then see  black car pull up next to the and and they all scatter. Code for a greater danger. 

That same car pulls up along side our main character, there is then a long shot of the car and a flashing light that is lit inside it. Their is then a cut to an over the shoulder shot of the main reaching to the bullet that enters him. Then a slo mo shot of his cup spill onto the floor, resembling his life leaving his body.