In this music video, there are a few shots/ clips that I thought were very effective and I would like to attempt to include these ideas in my video. This video, according to Beyoncé captured "raw, fun and being in the moment" and I feel that this comes across very strongly in this video. I also found out that this video was not planned and the director just went with his instinct. In this case this was very clever as it was a risk that payed off.
In this shot, I really liked the way that they showed an aerial shot of where the music video is set so you can understand a little bit more about it and its background. You now know that it is set in a theme park in America because of the roller coasters and the American flag. I will try to incorporate this into my music video as I believe that it gives the audience more of an idea about what the music video is about.
I liked the idea of doing a point of view shot in the music video as it allows the audience to imagine that they are really on that roller coaster. It is also typically the point where the adrenaline builds up the most, as you get the thrill as soon as you reach the top and you go down. Therefore I am going to incorporate this into my music video if I can so that the audience can see the world through the artist or actor's eyes. In this case it is like we are looking through Beyoncé's eyes.
In this shot, I really like the idea that Beyoncé is being filmed while she is riding the roller coaster so that all her facial expressions and body language are genuine and in the moment. It is hard to put on a facade when you are faced with a situation such as riding a roller coaster. Therefore, in my music video I would like to capture a genuine reaction to something at some point in my music video.
In this shot, I really like the way that the camera films the ticket booth. It is a mixture of panning and tilting and the camera goes from horizontal to vertical.
In this shot, I love the different coloured lighting and I would like to use lots of different lights in my music video including reds, blues and yellows. I think that this will make my music video more effective because it captivates the audience and intrigues them.
Sophie Muller (born 31 January 1962) is an English music video director, noted for her long-time collaborations with artists like Sophie Ellis-Bextor,Shakira and Leona Lewis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Muller usual style:
Close-ups of artist
Animation and lights
One music video she did is 'Murder on the Dancefloor' by Sophie Ellis-Bextor
The music video centres around a dance competition. The winner's prize consists of a pair of golden high-heel shoes and a substantial amount of money. Desperate to win, Ellis-Bextor proceeds to sneakily injure and disqualify the majority of the other dancers. She causes one to slip on butter, before tripping-up another, who sees her do it and angrily points at her to no avail. Next she slyly poisons a trio of potential rivals by spiking the punch during a refreshment period and then unstraps a female contestant's clothes causing her to run off. She finally frames a male dancer of cheating on his partner, by planting a G-String on his person, this results in his partner slapping him and exiting the dance floor. Ellis-Bextor then turns her attention to the trio of judges. By using what seems to be chloroform, she incapacitates the only female judge on the panel. Once the competition is down to the final four couples, Ellis-Bextor notices that the lead judge has a weak spot for beautiful women. Using this to her advantage, Ellis- Bextor approaches him when he is alone at the judging table and seduces him. Lovestruck, the lead judge succeeds in persuading the remaining judge to have Ellis-Bextor declared the winner, much to her fellow dancers' disapproval. The video concludes with the other dancers grudgingly applauding (before promptly deserting) Ellis-Bextor and her dance partner, as she happily clutches her cash prize and the golden shoes on the winner's podium.
Another music video is 'She Will Be Loved' by Maroon 5
The beginning of the video features the lead singer, Adam Levine standing in front of a swimming pool. As he prepares to dive in, flashbacks appear: a younger woman swimming in a pool, Levine and the younger woman sharing a kiss, Levine comforting another woman who appears to be in distress, the older woman hiding alone in her car, and the older woman embracing the young man. Levine then dives into the pool via front flip and cools down when submerged underwater, unaware of what's to happen to him in falling in love that summer, while flashbacks appear: both women are walking side by side in the city, someone watches them from his/her car and the three protagonists are face to face.
When the young man and his girlfriend attend a social gathering at her rich parent's home, the couple dive into a swimming pool and kiss. After which, his girlfriend introduces him to her socialite mother, who is helping her dry up from swimming and glances in the young man's direction, who is captivated by the older woman upon seeing her for the first time. However, everyone, except Levine, are oblivious to the fact that not everything is going well in the mother's relationship with the much older man. After the mother goes to her husband for affection, the old man has appeared to grown tired of her and would rather talk with the other wealthy men about his status, neglecting his wife. Having her love unrequited, the mother twirls around seductively, catching the attention of several male guests
One night, the young man descends down the stairs and finds someone unconscious in the room. Recognizing the unconscious to be the mother, the young man goes to revive her and flashbacks reveal the cause of the mother's condition... Earlier, the mother's husband began inflicting verbal and physical abuse on her. When the mother tried to apologize, the old man immediately silenced her by smearing her lipstick with his hand and striking her across the face. Horrified of the abuse from her husband, she left to their mansion and concealed her face of the ruined makeup in an attempt to avoid suspicion from the party guests. Descending the stairs, however, she succumbed to the trauma and fallen unconscious. In the remorse, the mother awakens to find herself being comforted by the young man and they kiss.
After the kiss, the young appears to become more protective of the mother, parking his car outside a building one day to watch her and his girlfriend go shopping.
It is noticeable that in many of her videos she puts emphasis on the artist, and if their is a story it revolves around the artist. She also uses animation, for example in the background of Mika's video you see the black and white spiral.
A final music video is 'Crying for No Reason' by Katy B
This music videos is one of Miller's more recent videos. She puts emphasis on lights, animation and close-ups of Katy B.
Jake Nava is an English music video and film director, born in North London. He placed fifth in Entertainment Weekly's "Top 10 Music Video Directors" list for 2011, with videos for Adele's "Someone Like You" and Kanye West's "Monster".He is also widely known for his collaborations with Beyoncé, including the videos for "Crazy in Love" and "Single Ladies"Single Ladies was listed by The Times at third position in "The 25 Most Influential Music Videos of All Time", It is charted as the 3rd most downloaded video and won "Video of the Year" at the MTV Video Music Award, MTV Europe Music Awards, and BET Awards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Nava Usual style:
Black and white
Close up of the artist
One video he did was 'Someone Like You' by Adele
The video begins with a shot of a road in Paris and Adele is seen walking on it alone. She continues to walk and starts singing the song with a sad look as the camera makes circles and shots more locations in Paris including the Eiffel Tower. During the second chorus, Adele stops singing and pauses on the Pont Alexandre III to look over the River Seine. She continues walking alone through the streets during the bridge before finally entering a building in which she sees her ex-lover.After seeing her, he starts to walk away and several shots of Adele looking at him follow. I really like this music video because it is a very simple but effective concept. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Someone_like_You_(Adele_song)#Music_video
Another one is 'If I Were A Boy' by Beyoncé
The video begins with Knowles and her 'husband' saying a few words, including "intimacy", "honesty", and "commitment", and then saying the words "you", "me", and "us" together. When the action starts, Knowles is seen working as a police officer. Her husband is very supportive. He makes her breakfast, spends time at work looking for a present for her and forgoes socializing with attractive coworkers so he can be available when his wife arrives home. However, Knowles is not thinking about him at all. Instead, she spends her free time with other officers, particularly her male partner, whom she seems enamored with. Her husband calls her, but she ignores the phone. Later, when her husband gives her earrings, she puts them on to go dancing with her partner at a party. Her husband is upset when he sees them, and when he confronts her about this, she acts like he is making a big deal out of nothing. "When you act like that, I don't think you realize how it makes me look or feel", he tells her. Knowles then asks him in a condescending tone, "Why are you so jealous? It's not like I'm sleeping with the guy." Then the story reverses, and Knowles starts to cry. Her husband's situation is actually her experience—he is a police officer who takes his supportive wife for granted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Were_a_Boy#Synopsis A third music video is 'Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) by Beyoncé
The video features Beyoncé and her two companions dancing inside an infinity cove, which alternates between black and white and places the focus on the complex choreography. Throughout the video the women click their heels and shake their hips and legs. However, the main intention is to attract the viewers' attention toward their hands and ring fingers as they do the hand-twirl move. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Ladies_(Put_a_Ring_on_It)#Synopsis A final example of one of Nava's music videos is 'My Prerogative' by Britney Spears
The music video begins with Spears driving a Porsche at high speed in the Hollywood Hills.She crashes through a fence and lands into a pool inside a manor where a party is taking place. She emerges from the water and crawls in top of the car to sing the first verse.After she leaves the pool, she enters the manor and passes couples making out around her. She appears in a stainless steel kitchen, where a maid cuts the straps of her black wet dress. In the next scene, she walks into a study in which her husband at the time, is smoking and watching a black-and-white video of Spears on a projection screen.She then entered a dressing room with mirrors, wearing lingerie, high heels, stockings and a short fur jacket. She proceeds to a bedroom, in which a black dress is laid out on the comforter. She puts on the new dress and the camera cuts to the party outside where people gathered waiting.During the song's bridge, it is revealed that the party is actually Spears's wedding, as she starts walking towards the aisle and her husband waits next to a priest. The video ends with a shot of the black-and-white video and Spears looking into the camera. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Prerogative#Britney_Spears_version
Anthony Mandler is an American film director, music video director, television advert director and photographer. As a music video director, his most notable and frequent collaborator is Rihanna. The two have worked on sixteen music videos together throughout her career, beginning with "Unfaithful" in 2006 and most recently "Diamonds" in 2012. He has also written and directed music videos for many other prominent artists including Jay-Z, Beyoncé,Shakira, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj,Cheryl, Mary J Blige, fun. and Lana Del Rey. Typical Mandler characteristics:
Emphasis on the Artist performing and showing them off
Voice overs are frequent in his videos
Slow motion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Mandler One music video he did was 'OMG' by Usher featuring Will.i.am
The video begins with Usher flickering on a television in a room which is a reference to Max Headroom, a fictional artificial intelligence character from 1980's British television and film. We then see him dancing with blue flashing lights, and will.i.am. is shown in a similar room with red flashing lights. Maybe this represents a battle of the elements. Usher is then shown with female background dancers in a white room. In the scene he dons a pair of glasses which show the dancers performing through the lens. Usher then dances outside in front of a concrete wall, with male background dancers appearing as shadows. As will.i.am. performs his verse, he and Usher are seen in their corresponding rooms with flashing lights. After this, Usher puffs a cigar and dances with male background dancers in an arena-like area, whilst he is also joined by female dancers with flashing lights on the floor, with the video ending with Usher shown on the flashing television as he was in the beginning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMG_(song)#Music_video Another was 'I Knew You Were Trouble' by Taylor Swift
The video starts with Swift speaking in a confessional voice-over. Swift wakes up on an abandoned desert, surrounded by trash and debris, and wearing dark makeup. Flashbacks show Swift and her boyfriend engaging in various stunts, along with a few tender moments, such as when Swift's boyfriend gives her a necklace as a gift. After a while of what seems to be a good relationship, she begins to realise something is wrong. While in his parked car, he leans over to kiss her when police pull up for him. He starts a fight in a club, which results in the both of them being injured. There are also scenes of her in a grimy small bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror. While at an outdoor concert, she sees him kissing a large number of different girls. He then looks at her in a nonchalant fashion. She falls asleep in the desert where the party is being held, and wakes up alone the next morning. The video ends with her letting go of the necklace he gave her. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Knew_You_Were_Trouble#Synopsis A Third Is 'Ride by Lana Del Rey
Opening with an image of Del Rey swinging on a suspended tire, Del Rey narrates: "I was in the winter of my life and the men I met along the road were my only summer."Further into the narration, Del Rey expresses how she found sanctuary through traveling, while on tour, because the singer had not had a proper home for a long time. She also expressed that her dreams of becoming a poet were crushed and eventually opened the doors necessary to begin a career as a singer.Following the confession, Del Rey is seen riding on a motorcycle, flanked by a clique of leather-clad bikers and wearing anovelty t-shirt that reads, "Buttwiser: King of Rears."Other scenes include Del Rey wrapping herself in an American flag; another depicts her in sexual poses with an older man playing on a pinball machine.
The black-and-white music video starts with Lopez exclaiming, "I knew I had to leave the world behind me to find out who I was," as she wanders the Californian desert in her finest couture gown. "I knew that love would never search for me, that I would have to search for it." Later, the video sees Lopez (wearing a clingy white bodysuit) and an male actor in love scenes.
As a music video director, David Fincher has won two Grammy Awards for Best Music Video, for his work in "Love Is Strong" by The Rolling Stones (1995) and "Suit & Tie" by Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z (2013), and three MTV Video Music Awards for Best Direction, being one of the most awarded directors in the category, alongside Spike Jonze. His video for Don Henley's "The End of the Innocence" won Henley the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video in 1990. He also earned back-to-back MTV Video Music Awards for Best Direction in 1989 for "Express Yourself" and in 1990 for "Vogue". In 1990, he earned three of the four available nominations in the Best Direction category. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Fincher#Music_videos
Typical Fincher features:
Black and White setting which dissolves between shots, creating a sense of fluidity between scenes and images.
Shadows
Leisurely camera movement
Extreme high angles
Some slow motion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Father
The first music video he did was 'Dance This World Away" by Rick Springfield in 1984
This music video uses an array of colours, such as red, when Rick Springfield is being shown. This connotes danger and is a direct contradiction to the light, pastel colours of the opening 'children's TV show' theme. The TV show is about things such as acid rain and nuclear waste. This represents the fact that these are dangerous issues in society of that time and that they were being taken too lightly by the public. There is also a scene of people dancing in a ballroom in black and white colours which generalises the population and makes it seem like they are oblivious to what is happening in the real world. At this time, the cold war was coming to an end and there had been a threat of nuclear war. Therefore, Springfield is trying to express the severity of what could have happened. He is also wearing black and comes across as quite angry, which makes the audience feel like he is trying to alert us to danger. A missile also comes out in the middle of the dance floor and the people in the scene don't have a clue. This represents the public's naivety. A second music video that he did was 'Oh Father' by Madonna in 1989
The video was shot entirely in black-and-white and recreates the death scene of a young woman, exploring the tempestuous relationship between the husband and the daughter she has left behind.It begins with a young girl playing in the backyard as snow falls on the ground. The scene shifts to that of a bedside, where a young woman who has died, lies. Her husband covers her with a white sheet as a priest prays. Madonna, wearing a long, black coat, sings the song underneath a snow-covered, dead tree, as the young girl plays with her dead mother's jewellery. The husband comes and shouts at the girl, tearing away the woman's pearl necklace which drop at the little girl's feet. The adult Madonna is shown lying beside another man singing the song as the little girl visits her mother's grave. The man gets up and slaps Madonna in the face, as the little girl cries in front of the grave. She is taken away from the graveyard by her father, as interspersed scenes show the girl being kissed by her mother, her trying to reach the knob of a door, and Madonna powdering the bruise mark on her face. As the singer walks through a forest, the father is shown resorting to drinking in grief. A funeral scene follows, showing the girl walking up to her mother's wake. When she sees her mother's lips sealed with thread, she runs away from the wake. Madonna walks through a house, where shadows show the girl being scolded and shouted at by the father. Ultimately she walks to the graveyard and stands beside an old man, implying that she herself is the little girl portrayed. The video ends with the little girl dancing in front of her mother's grave as snow falls around her.
Another music video that he did was 'Vogue' by Madonna in 1990
The black-and-white video, set in Art Deco-themed 1920s and '30s surroundings, starts off showing different sculptures, works of art, as well as Madonna's dancers posing. Along with this are images of a maid and a butler cleaning up inside what seems to be a grand house. When the dance section of the song starts, Madonna turns around, and, similarly to the lyrics, strikes a pose. The video progresses, and images of men with fedoras, Madonna wearing the controversial sheer lace dress and other outfits, follow. As the chorus begins, Madonna and her dancers start to perform a vogue dance routine, where she sings the chorus as her dancers mime the backing vocals. Following this, other scenes of Madonna in different outfits and imitations of golden-era Hollywood stars progresses, after which there is a scene with Madonna's dancers voguing. Finally, after this scene, Madonna can be seen wearing her iconic "cone bra", after which she also performs a dance routine with a fellow dancer. As the rap section begins, various clips of Madonna posing in the style of famous photographs or portraits of Hollywood stars, begins, ultimately followed by a choreographed scene with her dancers and backup singers. This video has lots of fast paced shots which help to keep it more interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogue_(Madonna_song)#Synopsis His most recent one is 'Suit & Tie' by Justin Timberlake
The music video features Justin and Jay-Z performing in black and white on a gigantic 50′s style nightclub stage. At the beginning of this video you see Justin Timberlake going about his day. It then cuts to him singing on stage, to then recording music in the studio. For Jay-Z's part of the song the video's pacing slows, matching the speed of the music.
Jake Nava is an English music video and film director, born in North London. He placed fifth in Entertainment Weekly's "Top 10 Music Video Directors" list for 2011, with videos for Adele's "Someone Like You" and Kanye West's "Monster". He is also widely known for his collaborations with Beyoncé, including the videos for "Crazy in Love" and "Single Ladies" Single Ladies was listed by The Times at third position in "The 25 Most Influential Music Videos of All Time", It is charted as the 3rd most downloaded video and won "Video of the Year" at the MTV Video Music Award, MTV Europe Music Awards, and BET Awards.
Anthony Mandler is an American film director, music video director, television advert director and photographer. As a music video director, his most notable and frequent collaborator is Rihanna. The two have worked on sixteen music videos together throughout her career, beginning with "Unfaithful" in 2006 and most recently "Diamonds" in 2012. He has also written and directed music videos for many other prominent artists including Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Cheryl, Mary J Blige, fun. and Lana Del Rey._3.jpg)
As a music video director, David Fincher has won two Grammy Awards for Best Music Video, for his work in "Love Is Strong" by The Rolling Stones (1995) and "Suit & Tie" by Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z (2013), and three MTV Video Music Awards for Best Direction, being one of the most awarded directors in the category, alongside Spike Jonze. His video for Don Henley's "The End of the Innocence" won Henley the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video in 1990. He also earned back-to-back MTV Video Music Awards for Best Direction in 1989 for "Express Yourself" and in 1990 for "Vogue". In 1990, he earned three of the four available nominations in the Best Direction category.