Initial Music Video Research

You will need to spend a decent amount of time selecting your artist and your track for the music video unit, so we will begin this process early. As per the brief, you must show that you are producing a music video for a band or artist that maintains their image and their style and that still attracts their target audience.

To do this, you will need to spend time watching music videos by the band / artist and identify commonalities. Once you have identified the similarities, you must then analyse these and explain why they are evident in the music videos (but we will do some theory as a class before you do this).

So, to begin, you must search for the band / artist that you will be making your music video for; this can be a popular / existing band / artist or it can be for your own / friend's. Either way, you will need to investigate them and the way they want an audience to perceive them.

Tasks:

• choose your band / artist and watch a range of their music videos and list similarities (print screens are helpful too). This can include:
• genre of music
• type of music video, e.g., performance, narrative, message, etc (we'll do this in more depth as a class)
• settings and locations
• costumes
• props
• make-up
• themes and tone
• narratives
• choreography
• choose your song and then analyse the track. To do this, print out / save the lyrics and give meaning to the music and the lyrics. Explore:
• the lyrics - meaning, use of similes and metaphors
• the music - genre, tone, key, shift in any of the aforementioned terms
• the lyrics - AFTER you have analysed the track yourself, see if you can find out the meaning behind the song. This could come from a Google search, the artist's website, a CD cover insert or another source such as a radio / TV interview.

Still from Michael Jackson's Thriller. Dir. John Landis, 1983