Our location of our filming for Bruno Mars' song, 'When I Was Your Man', will be filmed in our main School Hall as it has all the props needed to film the 15 second clip.
The Props it has is:- - A Stage
- A Grand Piano
- A black backdrop
- Spotlights
- A Microphone
- The Hall can also be blacked out to help intensify the spotlight effect
The other props needed will be easy enough to get, these are:-
- A suit
- A wig
- A glass with drink in
As a group we decided on the music video by Bruno Mars 'When I Was Your Man' for our preliminary task as an experiment for a music video. The preliminary task will help us to understand how the concept of filming a music video works and provide us with a test run before we decide on the real product. The genre of the song is pop with a slight classical tune to it due to the piano throughout the song.
By selecting Bruno Mars' music video for this song, it provides us with a relatively simple filming technique for roughly 30 seconds as the location is situated at one place (at a piano). We will use Danny from the group to replicate Bruno in the video and he will attempt to lip sync along to the music as a test run. To allow Danny to be able to lip sync to the song, we will play the song aloud when filming and when editing, we will delete the sound from the video, especially as when the piano shots are displayed, we don't want the sound of the piano from Danny to play against the actual song.
In this video we see the artist, Mike Skinner, walking down the street reminiscing about his recent holiday through music by flicking through the photos which relates to the target audience of the video and music. From research and listening to 'The Streets' music style, the genre is known as hip hop and UK Garage with the English accent playing whilst rapping throughout the song. However it can be also seen as alternative and indie in some songs.
Personally I think that this video, identified in the genre of Indie, is very different to other Indie artists' music videos. For instance, this video in comparison to other Indie music videos is more common and less original with the walking down the street talking about a wild holiday compared to (e.g) an artist like Ben Howard who involves nature and innocences in his music videos.
The narrative of the music video helps target the aimed audiences of 17-30 year olds as it involves the artist singing about a holiday and girls which happens to relate well with those target age's.
The name of the band, 'The Streets' also plays a big part in the video as the name emphasises the narrative as the singer is walking down the street whilst singing the song.
The representation of 'The Streets' is very casual with the jeans, coat, white trainers and hat wearing in the rain and dark weather which links to the genre of their music. The clothing is grey looking which shows a contrast against the holiday photographs shown.
Artist Image
In terms of mise en scene, the location of the video plays an important role to the artist's image as it shows the London street background which relates to the sound of the music with the London/Northern accent.
With the location looking quite rough with the rain and gloomy weather, it portrays the artist's style and his personal history but also represents how he isn't bothered by what people think of him personally.
Including props such as holiday photos and typical teenage things (alcohol, games), it brings the modern side into the video which will help attract the intended target age even more.
Camera Angles and Editing
The use of camera editing in this video are very well done and have a mixture. The use of long shots whilst panning helps to set the scene of the London streets. Whereas the use of medium shots establish the facial emotions that Skinner wants to portray.
Throughout the video, point of view shots are widely used to identify the photos from Skinner's eyes whilst he sings/raps about them.
Editing is mainly used on the photographs in his hands which are images that start moving and sing along to the song.
Sound
Diagetic sound is apparent through the cars driving past, handling money and the till opening. It is also shown through the voice over as the singing is acting but is aware of the music.
The video for the song 'Where is the Love?' is generally about the fight against racism, war and terrorism that is affecting the world. The message demonstrates how respect and love has vanished as well as bringing over the message of bombing and discriminations which is an important factor within our youth and society today. The Black Eyed Peas show this through a narrative in their music video which is accompanied by their hip hop/RnB genre that they are known for.
The group's video was shot in Los Angeles and released in 2003 and features the band, children and the general public in L.A spreading the message of the song by acting the song at times instead of the group which helps target the endangered society. The lyrics also help identify what the band are trying to bring across to their audiences and through the particular language used in the lyrics helps the target audience to relate to the song.
The target audience for this song and video would be not only teenagers but adults as well (12-50 yr olds) due to the modern approach from the band as well as the mature issues they are trying to emphasise. Also the audiences can be from all different racial backgrounds as the overall message of the video is to make everyone aware of the issues involved in racism. Therefore this video should help and attract awareness of the population, targeting all sorts of people.
Camera Angles and Editing
During the chorus of 'Where is the Love?', the Black Eyed Peas have chosen to involve the public through synchronised editing which brings on a great effect for the video. By including children and adults of different ethnicities, it helps to highlight the message the band is trying to bring across as the raised issues are affecting the public who are singing in the chorus. Also to have a greater effect for the video, they have included close ups to show detail of the emotion in the face.
At the beginning of the video, a hand held camera is used to not only make filming easier but it helps make the audience feel as though they are part of it all. By using a hand held camera, they were able to track along the road showing men in black running and capture the audience with a close up of the sign of the question mark.
Like other music videos nowadays, the music has been synchronised with the cutting rate, therefore increasing the emphasism on the message and the sound.
Mise En Scene
Question mark motif used throughout the message to get across the issue of racism. The motif is used by Fergie, other band members and the public pasting the image all around L.A in different locations. This adds mystery to the video because the audience will be intrigued as to why they are doing this.
Dark clothing to portray the danger, and black, dark van also adds to that. The video is also portrayed through a news report style due to the microphones and speakers on/in the van, this helps imply how important the issue they are trying to get through is.
There is a negative stereotypical outlook on the black community at the beginning of the music video and with the mise en scene, it adds to the negative portrayal.
Sound
Diagetic sound is used in the music video such as when three quarters of the band are in the van singing through the microphones to the community but non diagetic sound is also used in parts when showing crimes and the public.
Below demonstrates the Acoustic Indie genre shown through album artwork of artists such as Lucy Rose, City and Colour, Haim, Kodaline. These artists particular show their genre as the mise-en-scene on their albums include props such as guitars, hats, old/vintage radios and the location of the photograph being taken at an unusual place.
As you can see from the mood board created by myself and my group, you can see that Indie artists tend to use natural, bright colours and the photography plays a big role in the appearance of their album covers. However some of the album covers shown demnstrate the lack of interest in the negative space in the images. Although they use natural lights and locations of attractive, fun and interest, there tends to be some negative space that isn't being used. -Such as on the beach on Kodaline's album cover.
- A Stage
