To find out what makes a good music video product we were given the task of researching five different videos to get an understanding of the conventions of music videos and what makes them successful or unsuccessful.
Bruno Mars- The Lazy Song
The first video I watched was "The Lazy Song" by pop artist Bruno Mars.
The video for this song features a comedic choreography routine of people in monkey masks and features and unconventional single shot throughout the whole video. These were features that I liked about the video however I felt that there was no narrative or relevance to the song, which I disliked. This showed me how important a narrative can be to song and how it is part of what makes a good music video.
Dev- Take Her From You
The Next video I watched was "Take Her From You" by pop singer Dev.
The video features a fairly clear; if strange, narrative filmed in a vintage style in high contrast black and white which suited the feel of the song. These were both features that I liked however I disliked the fact the song only really featured one character when the song theme would suggest otherwise. This showed me how it is important to try and theme your video around the lyrics and theme of the song and how the editing and effects can really add to the quality of your video.
The Fray- Heartbeat
The third video I watched was "Heartbeat" by pop rock group The Fray.
The video features a clear narrative of everyone going to a beach party at first before fading off into more focus on the band performing the song. I liked the strong sense of setting and mise-en-scene in this video set on the beach however I felt that while the performance element of the video is important this particular video over emphasises it which I disliked. This video therefore helped me recognise the importance of a strong sense of setting in a video and the importance of the performance element. however it also showed me that you can concentrate your efforts too much on one area of the video.
Fatboy Slim- Don't Let the Man Get You Down
The next video I watched was for "Don't Let the Man Get You down" by Dance Producer and DJ Fatboy Slim.
The video follows a comical narrative filmed in a vintage style about an apparently racist man who doesn't like young children who then gets run over at the end of the video. I liked how their was a very strong narrative that addressed a certain theme however I felt that the video did not seem to really take the music itself into account. This video therefore taught me that while a strontg narrative is good, it is important to make sure your music relates to the music.
Die Antwoord- Rich Bitch
The Final Video I watched was "Rich Bitch" by South African rap group Die Atwoord.
The video for "Rich Bitch" follows a comedic and strong narrative while also featuring elements of performance such as lip syncing. I like the strong sense of narrative and the comedic value of the video however I felt that the mise-en-scene was overly bright and distracted attention from other features of the video. I therefore learned from this video that a good mix of performance and narrative is one of the main keys to success while producing a music video and that overly bright elements in a video can be distracting to the audience.
Ian Brown- F.E.A.R.
We were also asked to choose our favourite music video of all time so i chose "F.E.A.R." by Ian Brown
The video for "F.E.A.R." features an abstract narrative of Ian Brown riding a bike through a city but the the film is played in reverse and slowed down. It is this use of editing to create this abstract narrative that I particularly like about this video. The only feature of the video that I don't like so much is the featuring of lyrics on the screen; however I feel that it could be seen as necessary in this case as the song relies heavily on its poetic lyrics which are the main feature here.
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