Research: Lip Synch

As a lip sync tutorial we learnt it was one of the most useful tools we'll use for producing our video. We learnt mainly in the 40 minutes about using the cut razor, matching sound bite to video clip, and cutting files to produce an effective video with a full range of shots, which in effect made it more interesting and professional.

As editing and FinalCut Pro is not my forte, i could say i learnt quite a lot through this lesson. I thoroughly enjoyed it because it was such simple steps to creating an interesting video and in such short time. It personally surprised me because i thought it would be quite long winded to create such things, but i guess when starting to add special effects it will be longer. From that tutorial, i learnt mostly about aligning the song with the video, cutting it exactly on the point in which the words are sung in the lyrics. I also learnt about the cutting on the various lines along the clips and deleting certain parts to create an effect of an actual pop video.

I didn't think most of it was challenging, although i didn't enjoy trying to cut the clips to the beat of the music. This was hard and i didn't really manage to do this, although at first try i thought i did pretty good for a making of a video.

We used various tools on FinalCut pro to achieve the desired effect, in simple steps they were:

• Upload video
• Use the Marker Tool to pinpoint an exact word to the video where it is said: using the sound wave tab will be easier because the waves mimic the pitch of the noise in general
• Drag the video clip that is marked to the exact point above the soundtrack where you have also marked at the same exact word
• Use the Marker tool again to select this on all the other clips
• Now use the Razor Tool to cut at different sections where preferred during all the clips
• Using the Backspace key instead of the 'Del' key, you can begin to erase parts of clips you don't want to see and ones you do, such as guitar after drums and then singing, instead of one whole line of drumming
• Finally, you can now mute your clips and use only the sound of your track, this should hopefully be in sync to the lips of the footage filmed

Personally, I'm already finding editing video clips much easier than last years video clips. Mainly, because last year different clips were filmed at different times and then put together at the end to create the actual video. Whilst with a music video, everything is shot all the way through all the video and simply put together. Obviously there are the normal implications like the actual syncing and speed of song combined with the person who is singing. I much already prefer working on this piece of work.

{Planning} Lip synch tutorial and exercise. Part 1 and 2.

Lip Syncing is a common term used to describe the process of getting film footage of your artists singing/playing to match up with a separate audio track of the artist singing/playing! It's a vital skill when creating a professional music video as it means the sound will be clean, clear and consistent no-matter what type of shot you've taken, but it has to be just right as the human brain will very quickly notice even the subtlest discrepancy between lip movement and voice.


Surprisingly the basic tutorial we had prooved the synchronization to be much easier than i had anticipated. Instead of visual trying to match both tracks up by eye, Final cut pro has a conveniant "marker" function that you can use. This marker can be placed anywhere along the track with a press of the 'm' key.
A basic technique was shown to us for efficient editing, i thought i'd outline it below to show what i've learnt:

1. Open up the soundtrack first 

2. Find a nice clear point of sound at the beginning, perhaps the first word of the song. It was easier to recognise where the word begins by switching to the audio representation tab, where the sound is shown as a wave.

3. Place a marker :) 

4. Now we do the same thing by looking at the audio waves from the actual video footage, and place a marker

5. When you drag the video clip onto the time line above your clean soundtrack you'll find you can drag the marker to match the video and audio tracks up.

6. Mute the audio from the video footage, if you've got your markers right, you should find the lip movements and the clean audio soundtrack perfectly in sync!

Well it worked like a charm, i found my audio track matched all my layers of footage where i used the same technique. Along side that i also found i learnt a bit about cutting a music video, which was treated quite differently to the way we put together our thriller film.

The same basic principles applied but we expanded upon what we already knew, continuing to use markers, placing them all along the tracks, naturally keeping to the beat. We could then use the razor tool to cut each track simply along the vertical marker line. Repeatedly, then removing clips from each track at will to quickly produce a synced, varied performance pop video. It was pretty straight forward and produced good results, but alot more thought and planning will be need to create a truly spectacular music video, getting the timing and the look right could be considered enough but making sure you're using your best footage, keeping it interesting and varied will make a real success, and we wouldn't aim for any less :)

Having said that, now it's time to look at Part 2 of this task, my write up on our group lip synch exercise. It didn't exactly go to plan!

when it came to our group lip syching excercise, where we recorded lot's of different shots of the lovely Sylvda singing along, you can see our finished result here. We weren't entirely pleased with it as you'll read below but we feel is was an invaluable tutorial that really taught us what to look out for.

We used the same methods as in the tutorial, easily lining up the start of the vocal audio track with her lip movements on each track. After that we put markers at timed interviews along the track to match the songs timing then used the razor tool to cut up all our clips along those markers. The first couple of shots worked as planned but then we noticed that many of them were out of sych suddenly. We spent a lot of time trouble shooting this, it didn't make sense since we knew it was initially all synched and we hadn't edited the track in anyway that would mess up the timing. We came to the conclusion that it was simple human error case, that while it sounded fine when we were recording Sylvda singing along to the track infact she herself must have been singing slightly out of time as she got more into it, our brains had just fixed it for us and we didn't notice. Unfortunately this left us with only about 2 tracks of footage that were always synched and everything else was unusable. So our final practise video is rather boring and not very well done. However I really am glad we made this mistake! Now we will be very careful and acutely aware of this problem when it comes to shooting our pop video. It's safe to say that we learnt a lot from the whole ordeal.

Our Lip Synch exercise!
A team! Low angle Taking it in turns Me doodling shot-types

{Research} Amplification, Disjuncture, Illustration

Illustration

BUSTED-YEAR 3000
Uploaded by pierrot77. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.


Busted - Year 3000
Uploaded by Busted. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.
Busted's 'Year 3000' is a fine example of illustration. An illustrative music video would follow the narrative lyrics of the song as if the song was simply describing the action on scene, this vid' does that right up to the "triple breasted bandits".


Amplification

Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way
Uploaded by WBRNewMedia. - Watch more music videos, in HD!
Amplification is where a pop video takes the lyrics or story of a song and expands upon the meaning of those lyrics. It could be presenting the viewer with alternative interpretations of what the song is about or giving the user another side to the story. In 'By the way' i have long heard a story about a man who supposedly turned up for a show to meet his girlfriend, but obviously when she got there he wasn't around, he claims he tried to be there but that's all we know from the song. As you can see this video is a good example of amplification because it shows us that the young man was actually kidnapped by a crazy taxi driver! Giving us another view into the story.


Disjuncture

Coldplay - Strawberry Swing
Uploaded by EMI_Music. - See the latest featured music videos.
Disjuncture is how we'd describe a video like Coldplays 'strawberry swing' above. These video are often completely irrelevant to whatever the song is about, sometimes they are extremely abstract interpretations but the viewer will rarely be able to see any link between the images on screen and what they perceive the artist to be singing about. Disjuncture videos tend to take their influence more from the mood/atmosphere and the timing/rythem of a song, but that certainly isn't a rule of thumb.

Lip Synch Tutorial

In our lip synch tutorial we learnt various skills, that we would need for our A2 project. I learnt some new technical skills during the tutorial, which takes a while to get your head around, for example :

• How to use base tracks in editing
• How to use the razor blade tool, to break up each clips
• How to fixate the audio and lip movement together for effect
• How to use the marker

In order to get the lipsing right, we had to find a key word and fixate on that word. To do this on final cut pro, we had to use the marker, which I found very convinent.

After we had mastered how to used final cut pro, we got into our groups, we had to pick a lead singer. We were given a CD player and a large sheet of lyrics. The song that we were given was called "Ain't no stopping us now" by Mcfadden and Whitehead. The lead singer was required to sing and not to mine, which makes it easier to edit the mouth movement to the music. We did not use the tripod, as we had to get use to holding it hand- held. We had to film the verse and chorus all the way trhrough, from start to finish, without pausing from different angles so that we can create base track to edit from. Our group used various camera angles.

• There was a close up of my lips
• Close up of my hands
• Close up of my feet
• An extreme close up of my face
• A mid shot
• A high angle shot

During this tutorial the filiming part was quite easy. We took various pictures, during filming. However, when it came to the editing we found this quite challenging. We as a group did not want the video to turn out this way, but we felt we did good for the first time. While editing we came across some errors. The first few seconds the lip synch was in time, but as it got towards the middle and end, we were confused. The shots that we got of me dancing and singing, was not in synch with the song. And these shots were suppose to be in the verses. The close up we got of my lips were fine as we used it for the chorus. And the extreme close up was fine, as we had to use it for the chrouses. So altogether we only have two shots in our video. There was also a slight error at the beginning on the video, there was is close up of my foot movement, which then goes to the close up of my hands clicking. During that transition there is a shot of my face, but it goes very quickly. I am glad that we made theses mistakes, because when it comes to the real thing, we can take into account all the errors we came across.

I think editing for music videos are different and much harder compared to the thriller films, as you are adapting your skills. For music videos we are using lyrics alongside with a song. In order to make it good, you have to get the lipsing on point. Whereas, for the thriller film we used sound effects. The skills we used for the triller films are the same skills we use in our music videos, accept with music video editing, there is more to do, which is more advanced and technical. For example using the marker.

I JUST UPDATED THIS WITH SOME PICTURES WE TOOK DURING THE TUTORIAL

Amplification, Disjuncture and Illustration Analysis

Amplification : This R 'n' B video is an example of amplification, as Justin Timberlake is clearly getting his revenge towards Britney Spears. For example, "Cry me a river", the rain at the beginning of the video represents Britney's tears. Towards the middle and the end of the video, the meaning is exageratted, to an extent where Justin himself video records himself with another girl, kissing. Then at the video he recorded plays on Britney's television, getting his revenge back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCtb19qwwCc

Disjuncture : This pop video is clearly a good example of disjuncture, as Michael Jackson is talking about the suffering going on in todays world.The line "if you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change" illustrates that he wants to help the countries that are going through difficult situations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iym7xO3-dz4&ob=av2n

Illustration : This Hip hop video is a clear example of illustration, as Jay-z is talking about his childhood, the different place he grew up in. And to illustrate this pictures where used. For example the line, "Home of that boy Biggie", is illustrate with a picture of Jay-z and Biggie performing on stage, at 41 seconds. When it comes to the chorus of the video (57 seconds), "Now you're in New York!!! These streets will make you feel brand new, the lights will inspire you", illustrates what the song is about, and pictures of new york and the lights are shown in this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjsXo9l6I8

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional narrative analyses don't really apply to pop videos. There are a number of reasons for this, it is just that they approach narrative from different angle to novels and films. The reasons for the different narrative structures are as follows:
1) Pop videos are built around songs - and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structures (normality- problem- resolution)
2) The pop video uses the singer both as narrator and as a character.
3) The singer often looks directly at the camera - this is an extension of (music- hall) performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with the performance.


Pop videos relp on repetition. Images are repeated in the video, like the song repeats the chrous or lines. Repetition in songs of parts of rhythms of other songs (intertextuality) means that the audience become familiar with the genre and have certain expectations. The video would be played on TV, and the song would be played on the radio. The song could be also promoted in films.

Pop videos and songs, have a closure or ending. The 3 minute single that a video is based on must end in the struture of the music, which builds up to a constant repetition before ending.

Some videos are seperate from the music they spring from. The song that the audience see may go beyond the original meaning. Sometimes the video provides visual meaning, so the video is repeated viewing which therefore promotes the music. Sometimes the video may be promoting other commodities such as films.
There are three types of relations between songs and videos:
1) Illustration : this is where the video tells the story of the lyric "Papa don't preach" (Madonna) for example. Dance is often used to express the feelings/moods in the song.
2) Amplification : occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning.
3) Disjuncture : this is where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric. Michael Jackson's "Man in the mirror" is an example of this. The song is about self -realisation but, the video is full of radical world events.

Research: Music Video and Key concepts

THE ADICTS - JOKER IN THE PACK

All music can all successfully in one way or another be analyzed in a way that breaks down all the features into parts. I shall be talking about Genre, Narrative, Representation and Media Language relating to this video clip of The Adicts. It isn't a very traditional video clip, maybe because of its genre, or date setting, but i shall do my best to extract the right information into categories.

Genre: To figure out a genre from watching a video clip, close attention would have to be payed to the mise- en-scene such as costume, lighting, setting, etc. At first glance at costume i would say punk, the ripped clothes, leather jackets and tight jeans fit into such classification of England's 80's. What could be misleading is the make up, the painted faces depicting clowns or mime characters bring an edge of any other involvement in the genre of the music except from Punk. The setting in the performance is inside a dark club or room, this again would be a classification of the punk genre, as well as the crowd dancing the famous punk rock 'Pogo Dance'. In the first part of the video, which is a short speech about the characterization of being a Punk, the setting is on a playground, where they are playing cricket. This relates to the young teens they try to be at heart and the ease of their lives, which was what Punks wanted, life easy and their way.

Narrative: The video, however nontraditional it is, does have a structure of verse-chorus-verse. The chorus is obviously more predominant, as in most songs a repetitive part that people can pick up on quicker is the main feature. In this particular video i would say that the singer both narrates and performs in it, which is true because he is on stage performing the song, but at the beginning it is him talking about his views. So he is narrating possibly the meaning of the song, or why the particular lyrics.

Representation: Again, in this particular video we are both voyeurs and participants. Only because of the narration section at the beginning. Otherwise we would've been simply narrators watching his show. But because he voices his opinion, he is in a way inviting us to think about the topic and our own thoughts and views, or even why he has chosen to express his.

Media Language: The video is completely basic, judging on the fact it feels like a home made video, especially having the main scene at a concert they performed at. It is definitely not timed to the beat of the music. This doesn't however change the effect the song has, it just steals away from the core of a good video, which should be about the music and not secondary elements. Lighting isn't used purposefully, except in the gig room, where unoriginal spotlights are used on the band. Outside, natural lighting is used. Definitely, no special effects, of course this was to do with money, and lack of technology, but even if these were funded i doubt such a band would have chosen to use these. For the fact that they were Punk, and really wouldn't have been interested in such elements.

Lip synch Tutorial

In this tutorial we learnt valuable skills about lip syncing which we will have to demonstrate in our A2 pratcial project. The key to lip synch is to find a key word and fixate on that word. And use it as your guide on final cut pro to help with marking it with the marker tool.

I found lip synch a very technical skill that takes a while to master. I learned a few new skills along the way for example :-

• How to use a maker in final cut pro
• How to use the razor blade tool to break up each clip
• How to use audio and lip movement to help match each other
• How to expermenting with a camera movement for effect
• How to use base trcks in editing

During this tutorial our group was required to select a member to be the 'lead singer'. We were given a song, a CD player and a large sheet of lyrics. Our song was 'Ain't no stopping us now'. We were also given clear guidelines which would help us alot. For instants we were required to actually sing not mime. Not to use a tripod as we wanted to get use to using the camera hand-held again. And also take some digital photos during the filming process.

During this tutorial i found filming and using a different variety of angles rather easy. As we worked well as a group and all had input. We made sure we had at least 3 base tracks from start to finish without pausing and from different angles. We also had fun with it and encouraged our 'singer' to do her own style.

But as we came to editing we did encounter some problems. Some angles/shots were synch and some weren't at different stages. Even though at the roughly the 1st 20secounds into the song every shot was in synch. Now this confused us as we didn't know why this was happening. But we did work though it and with some good editing our video did come out pretty well for our 1st try.

Because of the difficulties we came across during editing we made some observations about why the problems occurred. For example lack of lip movement , lack of audio and also the more technical the words of the song the harder to edit.

 

I think editing music videos differs from producing the opening to a thriller film as a music video, You need to be more precise and also you have to try and cut to the beat of the song. As were as you don't really usually  do that to a thriller film opening.

The 4 key concepts analysis

On our first lesson for A2, we were looking at how to analysis music videos. To get us comfortable into the A2 year, we looked closer, and it was broken down into 4 key concepts. The following key concepts were; genre, representation, media language, and narrative. We were looking at how the video piece together to promote the artist, genre, and song.

I am going to be analyzing a video, by Cee Lo Green called "Forget you" Which came out in 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB_M79prhCI

Genre

The genre forget you by Cee Lo Green, comes under Hip hop. The setting and location is at a diner, where teenagers meet up to hang out. This video reminds me of Sean Kingston's number one hit "Beautiful Girls", as the setting and location is quite similar. The artist (Cee Lo Green) , is dressed up presentable and smart. He is wearing a navy blue suit, with a black and white hanki chief neatly tucked into the blazer pocket. He is wearing a white shirt, with a black and white tie. The whole suit indicates that he is a lady's man, rich, and handsome. He has black dark shade glasses on, which indicates that he is "cool." He has a black stone earring is each ear, which links in with the genre hip hop, as these kind of earrings are worn in most of the hip hop videos. Part of the video has natural lighting, creating a cheerful mood, as if you want to be there. The rest of the lighting is from the diner, which is quite dull. It creates a lonely mood.

Representation

In this video, there is a strong gender representation. In this video the woman is seen as beautiful, as we are the observer from the man's perspective. Acoording to Mulvey, she says, "In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly." In the video the man is giving the woman eye contact, which always occurs in hip hop music videos. However, in Cee Lo Green's video (forget you), the man focuses more on the womans face. Normally there will be camera shots from the man's perspective looking at her body, in this sense he is looking more at the beautiful features on her face.

Media Language

The way edits in this video are quite slow, as the tempo is at mid pace. The edits are cut to the beat at real timing. There is no repetition, it flows in order. I feel that the editing is conventional to the song. The camera work is also conventional to the genre, as there are long shots of the artist showing off his suit and, the close ups of his face, showing his features. In hip hop videos, there are normally long shots and close ups of the artist, to show their expensive wear.

Narrative  

I would describe this video as a, linear structured video. It is clear to the audience that he is going through the cycle off growing up. We see him as a little boy, then a teenager, and then an adult. The disruption in this video is when, he is trying to get the girls attention, but she does not like him, so she goes up to him and throughs chips on his shirt. In this video she is kwown as the "heartbreaker." The equilibrium in this video is when, the roles reverse, he gets rich while she is sweeping the streets. The artist (Cee Lo Green) is the participant, as he is the one that had a crush on the "heartbreaker." He is the observer, as he sees what is going on. And he is also the narrator, as he is singing and telling the audience the stroy. The lyrics link to the narrative, as Cee Lo Green is illustrating the lyrics, which also links with the video.

Resarch Andrew goodwin

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin feels that a traditional narrative analysis doesn’t apply to pop videos. As he believes pop videos approach narrative from a different angle to novels and films. The reasons for different narrative structures are

1. Pop videos are built around songs –and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structures
2. The singer in a pop video is used both as a narrator and as a character
3. The singer often looks directly at the camera which is an extension of performance and trying to involve the viewer at home

Pop videos rely on repetition of images throughout its duration. Other type of repetition includes parts of the songs or rhythms of other songs (interxtuality). Having this sort of repetition in our music videos means that we can recognize what type of genre and have certain exceptions.

The 3 minute video is based on a must end structure of music. Bulids a climax ,a constant repetition before fading away.

The visualisation of a song may go beyond the orginal meaning. Some videos provide visual pleasure to please the viewer which will promote the music.

Three types of relations between songs and videos :-

1. Illustration: this is where the video tells the story of the lyric ‘Pap don’t preach’(Madonna) for example. Dance if often used to express the feelings/moods in the song
2. Amplification: occurs when the video introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meanings.
3. Disjuncture: this is where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric. Micheal jacksons man in the mirror is an example of this. The song is about self –realisation but the video is full of radical world events.

{Research} Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin was the first man to publish his very good understanding of the makings of an effective music video. He anaylised the structure of pop videos and made the point that, due to them being constructed around a song; they can be quite different to traditional narrative structures seen in film and books, that of Normality-Problem-Resolution.
To quote him there are three different reasons for different narrative structure, one i have allready covered but i shall list it below along with te other two regardless:

1) Pop videos are built around songs - and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structures (normality- problem- resolution)
2) The pop video uses the singer both as narrator and as a character.
3) The singer often looks directly at the camera - this is an extension of (music- hall) performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with the performance.

Pop videos are repetitive by nature, as lines or choruses repeat the the song often you'll find the the images in the video repeat. This repitition might also reflect upon different songs that are examples of the genre, and the images repeated might be used elsewhere for intertextuality, on websites and promo art. All this repition solidifys the video, making it and its imagry familiar to everyone whether this is their first viewing or not.

Goodwin agrees that songs, and therefore their videos, do tend to have a climax and then closure, Musically and often in the narrative of the video. Whether video footage is based on the song lyrics or not. Adrew G states that some videos can seem completely unrelated from the songs they're selling. Some contain eye-pleasing imagry to encourage people to come back to them, sometimes the footage is taken from a film or tied-in show. Andrew Goodwin concludes that there are three types of relations between the song and the video, See my post on Illustrative, Amplification and Disjucture for more..

(resarch) Media lanuage Music video

The music video i have chosen for my analysis is Lilly Allen -Smile. Which was a major hit in 2008.

(Music video need embeding help)


Narrative

The narrative structure of this video is linear. Lilly Allen position in the narrative is the participant- for example she plays the role of the girl who's boyfriend is cheating on her. She is also the narrator as she is the main artist in the song. The lyrics are also illustrative

Genre

This was Lilly Allen first ever song, so when it first came out i personally didn't know what type of genre she could relate to. But as i look deeper at the video now it is the genre of Pop. The upbeat tempo and the lighting are very normal for a pop video. However her costume i feel doesn't really link to genre as much as other female pop artist. As her dress sense is very unique in this video ( her trainerswith a prom style dress) . In some ways she has rebelled into striping off as others do.

Media language
The video doesn't use any spacial effects. And is an up tempo song. There are use of match cuts in this video. Its real time. Even though the tempo is fairly fast it still has a mellow feel to the song.

Representation
I feel this video changed how new female artist can represent themselves. She came out with her own style. The video is very light and airey but a very somewhat sad story line.

{Research} Four key concepts, a music video analysis.

To start of our research for a music video it makes sense to take a closer look at existing works, examining the key ways the video is assembled to promote the artist, genre or song. We can break down the development of a video into 4 key concepts, if you like, and look in depth at how they function.

For this bit or research I'm looking at a the successful and reasonably current, Block Party, an English rock band. Below is the official video to their single "The Prayer".

Genre

Bloc party are labeled as an english rockband, sometimes refered to as 'indie' putting them in the same genre as the likes of Franz Ferdinand and The Killers. Certainly some similarity's can be drawn but I think if one was to look at them they would conclude that bloc party are not at all atypical of this genre, thus they make an interesting case study. Genre plays a huge part in all aspects of a video so while we analysed it separately from Representation, Narrative and Media language in class I would like to cross between the fields for my own analysis, which I will be able to explore more thoroughly.

Representation

Lets first look at what the bands appearance in this video says about them. We can see that they are all young men but they seem to be an odd assortment and don't appear to be the most likely of companions. They are casually dressed with no way to identify them as a band, they certainly don't appear to be rockstars. 


To better define what one might expect representatively from a rock band take a look at these two press shots, one is modern Scottish rock/indie band Franz Ferdinand and the other is Bloc Party.


Franz Ferdinand have exactly the sort of band dress code I would expect of this genre, Smart clothes show that they are within the rock genre but their's nothing grungy about them, they are modern indie or "individual" rock artists of the 21st century. The tight fit, because they know they can pull it off, attracts the audience to their youthful looks and suggests virility. The black and grey make them seem edgier, moodier, and is certainly what you would expect to see, unlike the casual mish-mash of colour that is Bloc Party.


So why are Bloc Party and their PR not making the effort to make them more conventional to the genre, using a formula with proven success? Well it's easy to take four lithe caucasian men and cookie cutter them, but there's a real array of people in bloc party, spanning race and sexuality not commonly represented within this genre of music, I understand not all of that is suggested in the video (for example it is not evident at all that the lead singer is homosexual, this is just a widely know fact) however I felt all of this was worth touching on as it is something our group will have to consider when thinking about our own artist and representing her.


Back to the video, Bloc Party seem to be representing if anything an unsettled youth, young men longing for their place in the world, so perhaps they are in fact aiming to identify with their audience rather than becoming idols. They don't seem to be figures to aspire to be; they show a lack of confidence and idle frustration, and they seem to be drinking to improve the low mood. Alcohol is certainly associated with the rougher lifestyle a rock band might lead but I think it strikes sympathy with the audience more than anything else.

The setting is more representative of the genre, while the nightclub might not be relevant to their specific musical style it places that emphasis on the effects of music that would be vital for any musical artist. More so the lighting and mise-en-scene is dark and grungy representing typical music from their genre very well.

Narrative

The narrative of this video would be described as linear. The whole thing is one short episode going forward in time conventionally. Disruption is subtly introduced through use of special effects as the lead singer, who is both a participant in this video along with the narrator, starts off looking thoroughly disheartened but then continues to think about feeling empowered and shows a strong emotional reaction. This power is potentially from drink or other substances however the viewer is encouraged to feel the music is both giving him the confidence and representative of it as it builds along with his feelings. Equilibrium returns as he returns to his previous mental state and in the video that is shown by his position in the room, back to those familiar worn red sofas.

It is interesting to note that the lead singer is both Participant and Narrator and to top it off he also observes other members of the band. I feel that this video is Illustrative of the song, just take a look at a selection of the lyrics:

Tonight make me unstoppable 

And I will charm I will slice I will dazzle

I will outshine them all

Standing on the packed dance floor

Our bodies throb in time

Silent on the weekdays

Tonight I claim what s mine

Is it so wrong to crave recognition?

2nd best runner up

Is it so wrong to want rewarding?

To want more, than is given to you

Media Language

Again this video is not entirely true to it's genre, one of the most obvious things I noticed straight away was that the cuts are surprisingly slow, whereas you would expect quick cuts within a rock song. However this slow cutting certainly helps illustrate the story and the characters mental state. The special effects go much deeper into revealing the characters mentality.
Starting off barely noticeable, chaotic patters and bursts of a disorientated and dis-allusional reality begin to appear.

This might suggest the use of psychotropic drugs which would certainly tie in with the commonly held view on "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" and would go further to solidify their place within the genre. However I think these effects are more about representing the artists headspace and emotional state. The way clips change as if someone took a match to them, holes getting burnt into the footage show that the lead is admitting his frustration at his life and throwing away his usual placid demeanour.

Research: Andrew Goodwin and Video Categories

Andrew Goodwin presented his views on the structure of music videos. He strongly feels how different a pop video's narrative is compared to any other film or story being read or seen, just because they approach the subject in a different manner. Of course the reason for this is obvious when some thought is put behind, some include the fact the videos are based around songs, and songs sometimes are not stories at all. Another reason is the way the singer is portrayed, it may be that it is being the narrator as well as the character and this involves a direct look and approach of the singer, instead of the audience feeling like a 3rd party just looking into the characters life.

Importantly, Goodwin focuses on the visualisation of a song, meaning the video. He developed a form of being able to categorize videos according to the their relation to the lyrics. The video can provide just the simple pleasure of watching, or to promote a second party. The three categories available for placing are Illustration, Amplification and Disjuncture. Illustration means the video relates and collaborates to the words and therefor together they create an effective story. Amplification means the video also collaborates but adds in more information and meaning that the song does not talk about. Disjuncture means the video has little or no connection to the song or even where the video serves to oppose the song.

Pop videos or music videos in general usually have similar features which serve to identify the particular culture or genre of the music. A very popular one featured especially in RnB and Hip Hop is the female object specification, however women in these videos don't seem to concern of this male desire as a negative. Videos may also tend to try and use stills or characters from films or any other sort of advertising they do, this creates repetition in audience viewing because people are more attracted to things they already know.

Examples of the categories

COCOROSIE - LEMONADE
Illustration: They sing about their parents and themselves as children, the video portrays two old women which are meant to be themselves looking back over their years. Certain shots even contain them as young children singing and the lyrics are of a young childs memory. Some lyrics, for example 'By lightening strikes Instead there was hot, pink Flashes in the sky' are reinacted in the video at 2.20 minutes.

PINK FLOYD - HIGH HOPES
Amplification: Is shown in this video because it is literally amplified, the images in the video exagerate everything the words actually say. An example is 'Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground', the video then goes on to show men on stilts, which represented the narrator explaining how he wouldnt be tied down and rise above it. Although it adds more meaning, it leaves less for the imagination but exagerates the story much more which is a point of entertainment or this case definement of the band itself and its difference.



KISS - HIDE YOUR HEART
Disjuncture: I consider this almost pop metal video to be an example of disjuncture because of its misguiding video meaning. The title and the lyrics talk about love and being scared of it, but the actual meaning that the video portrays is about gang violence in the cities and how it might be betrayel of love for fellow crime gang members.