Technical Theatre 8

Today we started looking at the task of making our own music video, which we will be doing over the next few weeks.
Elvina, Ryan and I have been put in a group together, along with Mo, but he wasn't able to make it today.
We started the lesson by looking at the background of what we need to do to make a music video, watching a few from over the years and discussing the different aspects of them.
We had to make notes on the videos, the cinematography, effects used, and other things we noticed when watching them.
These are the videos we watched and what we thought:

1. "She Sells Sanctuary", by the Cult (1985)
This video is very simplistic, as were a lot of the music videos of this time. Rather than following a story or using actors and scenery, the whole video focused on the band. It was filming them on stage the whole time, except for occasional cut a ways to images of the lead singer amongst smoke.
There weren't a lot of effects used except for smoke, there was quite a lot of red lighting, and the band members were all illuminated by bright lights on them, which actually came together quite nicely at the end when the camera panned up to a bright white light as it finished.
The tone to the video was that it felt like you were actually at a concert watching them live, and they added a bit more interesting imagery by using very close angle shots of the lead singer, especially his mouth as he sung.

2. Happy, by Pharrell Williams (2014)
This video provided us with a stark contrast to the first. The whole time, the scene is changing, as we cut between lots of different people and places. This is in keeping with the upbeat tone of the song, as the shots are relatively quick and snappy.
The camera was constantly moving throughout the video, as the wide angle shots which usually had the people placed very centrally panned back and the people on screen approached the camera.
This video manages to make you feel very involved by having the people who took part and also Pharrell himself direct everything at the audience, it makes you feel a part of it which adds a lot to the whole joyous tone of the song.

3. Poker Face, by Lady Gaga (2008)
This music video is extremely interesting, it's very wacky and weird, as I'm sure was intended. and there's always something interesting going on. One of the things we discussed most about this video was its gimmick; product placement. Two products are advertised in this video and they most probably sponsored the making of it.
Something I noticed was that even though the videos are so different, this one used smoke effects similar to those in She Sells Sanctuary; it seems to be a timeless visual effect. The costumes are fantastic in Poker Face, including the make up, and the dance moves are catchy and perfectly timed which makes it very visually appealing. The whole video also changes between shots very fast, making a constant fast paced beat which corresponds to the audio. In this video there's also the element of some quite sexualised scenes, which not only is a little controversial but also appeals to a lot of people, since "sex sells", as they say.

4. Scream, by Michael and Janet Jackson (1995)
This one was one of the coolest to watch, in my opinion.
It followed a very specific genre, as it looked really sci-fi and uses loads of special effects. It was all in black and white and very dramatic. The visuals reflected the theme of the song and the lyrics, as things such as the smashing of inanimate objects represented the emotions of anger and the need to scream. The camera angles were constantly varying in this, there was always something interesting to look at. The costumes were striking and fitted the scenery and colours in the video.
The only times when there were no particularly edgy camera angles was when the focus had to be on what was actually happening, such as during the bridge where Janet and Michael danced.
The whole video makes a big impact and is very strong.

Our task to complete by next week is picking a song to make our music video for, which has a clear narrative.