1 Music Video Production LO2 Script Andy Raynes There are many approaches in which music videos can

be created, and the genre of the song itself can have huge dependencies on what the final product would look like. Some might say that these features in the particular genre are stereotypes, which even I consider to be rather true in most cases. I am going to analyse two music videos, each of different genres - rock and hip hop and talk about the styles, conventions and techniques between them. Muse - Butterflies and Hurricanes The first video I am going to show is Butterflies and Hurricanes by rock band Muse. First of all, Muse are an English rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy who does the lead vocals, lead guitar, piano, keyboards, and keytar; Christopher Wolstenholme who does the bass, vocals, keyboards, and harmonica; and finally Dominic Howard who does the drums, percussion and synthesisers. As you can tell, they share a huge amount of instrumental roles between the three them. This promotional video comprises stock footage of the band playing the song at different venues during one of their tours with some effects added, and images of the Coliseum in Rome serving as the main backdrop. The director of the film, Tom Kirk, is also the media manager for the band as well as editing and arranging the footage for their video releases in several albums. Kirk does his photography/videography work under the name of his company called Banoffeesky. It actually turns out that this is one of his favourite projects. As you can see from the camera work, it is all done very smoothly in the beginning with slow pans and long zooms. The main shots including close-ups and mid-shots the band members and the crowd, which is a recording of actual live broadcasted performances, therefore will use high quality equipment i.e. multi-cameras; tripods; and camera rails, to get the footage. However after the intro and build-up of the song, the camera movement starts to shake and zoom drastically. This is a change in pace. CGI is implemented in the background and as the dynamics get louder from the verses to chorus, the editing and camera shots to the beats are very fast to give an element of surprise to the audience. The specific genre of this band is alternative rock, and quite frequently in rock videos there would be live performances of the

2 band in a venue displayed with fast-paced editing this is exactly what this music video implements but with lots of added special effects which include masking the band members and the instruments frame-by-frame, then adding animated masked backgrounds that follow the camera movement of the shot, then the time-lapsed skies beneath it. In addition, throughout the whole video there is not really a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, because it isnt a narrative but a live performance instead, as you can see. Previously mentioned, the special effects and CGI added makes the performance stand out further to the audience and look more dramatic i.e. when it zooms out towards the famous coliseum in Rome. This is in my opinion is the only slight relationship. For instance the lyrics battles have begun and revenge will surely come relates to a Coliseum where historic battles have taken place. The video does cut to the beat quite often to look synchronised as well as with the technique of lip-syncing, but isnt necessarily cut to the beat throughout the whole duration of the video this is probably so certain shots can be emphasised a bit longer to the audience, especially with the special effects including the timelapsed skies and colourful flashing flares. When the piano solo comes in the footage focuses on the piano solo only, where masked city building backgrounds slide in and give a really amazing unrealistic effect to the audience. You can see a yellow flare around the sides of the screen which brightens the shots. Towards the end of the song the dynamics get quiet so the shots arent cutting as often and there is a long zoom out. However this is actually a build-up to the final chorus, then when all the instruments come in and the dynamics get louder, the pace of the camera movement and editing is increased to thrill the audience. There are many close-ups of the band and especially the singer or guitarist, who is of course the main voice the band plus the one most people would look at, so if there was a star image of the band he would be in front, followed by the drummer and bassist playing. Low-angles of the band are also used to give the image that they are performing on a stage, when compared with the crowd who are viewed from a high-angle. Muses record company would probably try and sell the individual track through this music video. Even though it is a music video, it is also advertising the band and getting a bigger audience. Additionally, they tried to get the individual song played on several TV channels to advertise the song and it actually proved affective.

3 On another note, the music video itself gives the impression to the audience that they represent an entertaining rock band, for example when cuts of the crowd from the concert footage are shown you can clearly see they are enjoying themselves, which gives a really good image of the band to make others want to watch them. Most of Muses other music videos usually have more of a link between the visuals and lyrics like a narrative, but since this is just performance-based footage it doesnt really have much. Because of this there isnt any voyeurism or use of sexual means to sell the video. The genre stereotype just shows how music videos of this type all of have these distinct features i.e. live performances of the band playing. Like Toy Soldiers Eminem Now I am going to be analysing a hip hop music video. In terms of genre, the style of the music is completely different hence the conventions and techniques should also appear to vary to a great extent. First off, Eminem, or Marshal Mathers the third, is a rapper, record producer, songwriter, and actor. He came from a rough childhood having been bullied at schools and spent it moving back and forth between cities in the US. His father also left him from an early age, despite Eminem being born with a mother at the age of 15. Currently, Eminem is one of the world's best-selling music artists and is the best-selling artist of the 2000s. It is estimated that over 220 million records have been sold worldwide. The music video starts with two young boys, reading a book called "Toy Soldiers," which contains the lyrics of this song. It begins at the hospital where Eminem and other rappers are watching in despair, as the doctors try to save D12 member Bugz having been shot multiple times. Afterwards, Eminem is seen in a series of scenes rapping the song in a deserted alleyway. Then, it goes through a series of scenes showing the various feuds mentioned in this song. This includes seeing the news, rappers battling in studios, and street encounters. Near the end, Eminem stands shocked seeing the shooting of Bugz. It switches back to the hospital, where Bugz dies and finishes at his funeral, which has a choir including the two kids from the beginning. The directors, The Saline Project, are not very well known but are Brooklyn based CGI Artists, Adam & Ben Toht. Creating incredibly detailed and hand crafted CGI, they integrate hand held camera moves with 3D animation, delivering a refreshing perspective with big visual impact to the audience.

4 Throughout the video the camera does not really move with a fast pace when compared to the rock music video. This is because rapping usually contains a lot more lyrics and notes that are not held for long during the verses. Instead, it is more like a film, where the camera movements, panning and zooming are slow. Eminem is also tracked when he is rapping at certain points whilst he is lipsyncing his own lyrics, followed by CGI to help tell the story of the song. You can also tell that some of the backgrounds are chromakeyed with animation as at certain sections people remain in the shot or disappear, and the background remains the same or adjusts. An example of this is at the ending when people fade out of the shot and the background remains static. Generic characteristics of hip hop include many low-angled, close-up shots, to imply the artists power over their audience. The low angle gives them the power, because they look down on the audience and the close-up illustrates status because it implies theyre important enough to have a frame to themselves. This does occur when Eminem is rapping, but since the music video is a narrative which tells a story about other subjects, there surprisingly isnt too much of this. A great amount of resemblance between lyrics and visuals is displayed to the audience throughout the entire video. For instance in the chorus at the beginning We all fall down and Bugz is shown dying in the hospital. Another example is towards the end of the song where he says I'll walk away from it all before I let it go any further and the video shows him walking away in a frozen frame of Bugz getting shot in a drive-by. The music video itself does not really cut to the beat like a rock music video might do. This is because rock videos usually emphasise the beats by the pace of the singing and instruments, whereas a rap video only really focuses on the lyrics. At the end of the video after the final chorus, there is a slight instrumental but there isnt any instruments shown being played. Rather, it shows headlines of Eminem coming to a truce and in the final shot other deceased rappers that the video or song is dedicated to. There isnt really any change in pace throughout the song other than the chorus and the last shot, but even then the flow of the editing remains the same, keeping several shots displayed for a few seconds at least. When Eminem walks away the dedicated deceased rappers are shown for a longer time to the audience so they understand the meaning of the song. The close-ups of Eminem rapping in the deserted alleyways by himself would probably be a good star image as there are also certain close-

5 ups. Compared with his other videos there isnt too much of this and voyeurism, as the song and video in its entirety are dedicated to other people and shows a background representation of the story and Eminems thoughts played over it. This makes the audience feel that he is a good person and does not support the whole concept of rap wars, therefore could win people over into listening into his music. Furthermore the music video is a form of advertisement for the song, so the record company would get a lot of sales. Overall, from both music videos in my opinion, I would describe the audience for Eminem mostly to be deep-thinkers as rap or hip-hop lyrics usually are based on ones thoughts towards something else of importance. But on the other hand, audiences for the rock music video may just be people who want to get an edge on certain songs or the whole band in general, and possibly liking it for the instrumental techniques used, such as the piano solo, that you would not be able to find much of in hip hop songs. Thanks for watching.