Ben Hollis

Research for music video coursework

Industry

Who are the Universal Music Group?

The Universal Music Group is the world’s leading music company. They are a community of
entrepreneurs committed to creativity and innovation. They own and operate a broad array of
businesses engaged in recorded music, music publishing, merchandising, and audio-visual content in
more than 60 countries. They identify and develop recording artists and songwriters, and we
produce, distribute, and promote the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music to
delight and entertain fans around the world.

As digital technology refashions the world, their unmatched commitment to lead in developing new
services, platforms, and business models for the delivery of music and related content empowers
innovators and allows new commercial and artistic opportunities are broadened. They are the
foundation for music’s greatest artists, innovators, and entrepreneurs.

Form

What is the purpose of a cross-media production?

The cross media-sector provides multimedia products and services by using radio, television,
Internet, mobile devices, print and events simultaneously along each other. This links to our
coursework as we must create a website for the music video, which shows the background of the
band/artist and information about them, the music video will also be shown on the website, creating
a cross-media production.

How can different media platforms be used to promote and distribute the music video?

Creating a brand identity with multiple different media platforms such as YouTube and Instagram
will benefit the distribution of the brand/artist, this will increase their following, ultimately this will
create a wider audience allowing for the video to be shown to a wider range of people.

There would be synergy in music marketing if there were two or more combined forms of media to
make a promotional video. For example, films that are featured in music videos as they draw an
audience in because the fans of the actors/actresses in the movie, the fans of the story of the movie,
and the fans of the artist singing the song are generally all interested which makes it spread round
and everyone is aware of it.

Genre

Can romantic love songs be found in a variety of music genres?

A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a
shared tradition or set of conventions. Love songs can be found in many different music genres,
from hip-hop, pop, rock, or metal music. What makes a love song is the lyrics, they have a meaning,
this could be about falling in love, heartbreak or after a breakup etc.
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Subgenres?

A subgenre is a category of a musical genre that includes its characteristics, but also has its own set
of characteristics that set it apart from that genre, this is often referred to as a style of the genre.
Fusion genres are a type of subgenre that combines two genres of music together, for example
country rock, which is a fusion of country music and rock music.

Specific genre conventions?

Music Genres are a way of categorising music based on their sound as well as the conventions that
they hold through their lyrics, the music beat, their image as well as many other things. For example,
with a love song the typical genre convention that you would expect to see would be a slow song
with lyrics about, falling in love etc.

Music Video 1 – James Bay – Let it go

The beginning of this music video is a lot of slow shots, 1 minute into the music video there is a
downward panning shot, starting at the back of his head which is a close up shot, slowly going
downwards into the darkness. The shot then rewinds and does the opposite, panning up from the
darkness, again to a close up of his head. The camera then creates a mid-shot of the artist. The
outwards panning then turns into a long shot of James sitting in a chair in an all-black suit. As the
song is slow, love song the expression on his face shows confusion, also with the dark lighting and
dull props and furniture. The mid to close up shot of the artists face when he sings “Why are we
doing it, doing, doing it anymore.” Creates a connection with the audience using direct address with
the pronoun ‘we’. After the artist has stopped singing it cuts to non-diegetic sounds. Overall, the
camera work doesn’t change that much which creates a good flow for this slow song.

In the music video there is a shot where James in sitting in front of a fire, his facial expressions show
that he is not scared of the fire, as the fire represents danger and it is around the artist, but still he
doesn’t seem to be phased. 2 minutes into the video there is an over the shoulder shot with the
artists reflection in the background, it creates a sense of supernatural life and is quite mystical. The
artist looks emotionless, this denotes sadness and confusion as he is lost amongst the darkness of
the room. 4 minutes into the music video James appears again, emotionless with a woman sat next
to him in the car, before this they set this house of fire, the woman is excluding more emotions
showing she is concerned about the fire, whereas James does not. At the end of the music video
there is long shot of the car and the house that is on fire in the distance.

Music Video 2 – Ed Sheeran – You need me, I don’t need you

At the start of the music video there is a close up of Ed’s guitar with him playing it, it then cross cuts
the lip singing performer for the first few seconds of the music video, this suggests to the audience
that they will be the key aspects of who will appear more throughout the video. After this there is an
extreme close up showing only the other performers eyes, the camera is looking down on him
suggesting that he could be vulnerable, contrasting with this he also look strong and powerful with a
stern look on his face. This use of juxtaposition of the man pretending to be strong but inside is
vulnerable, this shadows Ed’s persona at the start of career. The music video then jump cuts to a
mid-shot of the man which pans inwards showing him in more detail. The music video uses a lot of
jump cuts to make the music video seem more upbeat, they are used when there is a drop in the
music. This makes them stand up and more significant. The change of the black and white
background in the music video makes it that much more dramatic and keeps it simple. This could of
also connect to how a stereotypical love song goes, as black is representative of dull and sad,
contrasting with this it is a face paced music video with lots of jump cuts. There are only a small use
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of props in the music video, this allows the audience to focus on the performers also letting them
connect on a deeper level. 2 minutes into the video the first prop is shown which is a statue which
use is to confuse the audience on why it is there allowing them to keep them guessing when the
song is over. The lyrics and the main chorus of the video “You need me, I don’t need you” resembles
what the song is about, the performer pointing at the camera directly addressing the record
company that Ed was signed to at the time.

Music Video 3 – Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk

The music video starts with a medium tracking shot of a woman’s feet in red heels, this grabs the
audience attention immediately making them want to watch until the end. The tempo and the beat
gets progressively faster from the beginning. Then cuts to a slow motion close up only showing
Bruno Mars having a handshake with someone that we don’t see, then it cuts back to the original
shot. The instrumentals becoming more sufficient is used to get the audience into a good mood
ultimately urging them to sing along. Bruno is wearing luxury items with gold chains, a suit, and
shades, this shows wealth and power, then the clip cuts to the woman we saw at the beginning but a
mid-shot panning upwards showing her fur coat with furthermore connotes luxury. The continuous
cuts of Mark Ronson’s face could link to lights flickering creating a party atmosphere. The next shot
is shown with a swiping motion in between which then shows Bruno being the centre focus in the
middle with two other men either side of him, also in suits and funky outfits, showing more luxury
and power. It then cuts to a close up of Bruno Mars looking directly into the camera looking at the
audience, this includes and evolves the audience wanting them to go with the dance moves and
singing the lyrics, connecting on a deeper level. The camera then cuts to a low angle shot of the 5
performers which are now dancing. There are little effects put on this music video making it seem
more real and easy on the eyes to follow along with, also making the performers more of the centre
piece to keep an eye on. There is no studio used for this music video it was filmed in the streets
again adding to the realness of the video. The location changes at around two minutes into the
music video as they are sitting in a hair salon typically used by woman, with hair combs in their hair.
This adds to the humour of the music video, making it funnier and more enjoyable for the audience.
Throughout the rest of the music video, it consists of mid shots with Bruno being the centrepiece,
neon lights have been added with a few smoke effects to create more of a party feel to the song.

Who is the target audience?

The target audience for love songs would be around ages 16-25 as love songs would be things that
they are either starting to explore or maybe have had a breakup etc. This means that they can
connect on a different level than older people, artists such as Ed Sheeran creates music for this
audience as well, they can connect as he is also quite young and experiencing the same things that
he is. The audience would be more towards the female side but there is also a big fan base for men.
People watch love songs and music videos to feel something and connect with that artist that they
are listening to. These days there are hundreds of different ways to listen to these songs from
Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud, iTunes and many more.