B.O.B ft Hayley Williams - Airplanes
The pop video for Airplanes by B.O.B and Hayley Williams is very abstract because although its located in a simple warehouse with little if none props it is still very effective. The video features several frames of B.o.B rapping his verses in a party setting, on stage, and room filled with lights and occasional song lyrics while Hayley Williams sings the hook in a light filled room and walking through photographs. The idea of Hayley Williams as a silhouette in the front of the camera frame with bright lights in the background works really well in creating a magical, funky look that fit with the lyrics, its about wishing and wondering what would've happened if they never became famous so the idea that their in a empty warehouse with only the bright colours to reflect their emotions portrays their feelings through imagery and sound. Although we don't have such resources to create something like this, we can make the best of what we do have and try to make our own interpretation that will be suitable for our music track. We could interactive whiteboards and play a stop motion collection of pictures and have our artist standing in front of the board so the video is reflected onto their body and the artist will look almost camouflage. We can also experiment and remove the artist from direct light so that we too can create a silhouette effect, we will be experimenting with these options to see what works best and then working to expand it.
Star image is also really important. Features such as hair and makeup is exaggerated alot to make artists look fashionable and done up, to prtray they idea they can afford this makeup and the sylists for the hair therefore they live really great lives. Here hayley williams especially has bright hair which is a major part of her image, its what people notice about her immeadietly. Her makeup aswell is really bright and its all about taking the simple locations and shots and changing minor details to them. In this particular music video we also noticed how Hayley Williams is rarely enganging with the audience and making eye contact almost to distance herself from reality, the whole point of the song is to focus about dreams so this is a really effective to present that, however we think to keep with the tone of the music it will be better for our artist to have alot of contact with the camera and audience to make it more personal as the song is for people to related themselves to it, its interesting to see how it can easily be made in the opposite way though.
Digipack Research- Nicola Giles
We chose to analyse several digipacks from artists that were an inspiration to us within the pop genre. We firstly chose to analyse Ellie Goulding's front cover of the digipack used for her album 'Lights'. As you can see the front cover of the album is very striking with a close up of the artist to capture the audiences attention and appeal to her current fans as well as capturing a new audience. She is represented as being very natural as she is not wearing alot of make-up and the background is very plain. The special effects used to add a glitter effect emphasise the name of the album as well as adding a sense of mystery and uniqueness to the artists star motif. To add to this Ellie Goulding is represented as being subtlely sexy as she has a seductive expression on her face, however she is not looking directly into the camera which makes it less obvious. The effects are added in her hair and behind her, making the lighting effect foccussed on her which shows she is the main focus and all attention is on her.
The font used for both her name and the title of the album links in very well with the light theme and the colours used allow 'Ellie Goulding' to stand out against the black clothes that she is wearing, again to emphasise the fact that she is the star and all focus and light is on her.
The close-up used makes the audience feel very close with the artist as it is a very personal, invasive camera angle with the whole of her face taking up the frame, allowing no distraction away from the artist. Although this is a very invasive shot, it is only of Ellie Gouldings face, there for she is not being objectified in any way.
Costumes- Nicola Giles
When deciding on what costumes we would need our artist to wear we chose to research various artists whose star image is similar to that of our artist. We carried out various pieces of artist research based on the image we wanted to create for our artist and the genre of music our artist fits in to and analysed these to see how their music videos are produced. This includes the props and costumes that are needed to add to the effect of the music videos. Without the right costumes a music video would not work as they help to create meaning and reinforce the star image of the artist.
We chose to focus our costume research on four current artists; Pixie Lott, Cheryl Cole, Ellie Goulding and Ke$ha. Although these artists all have slightly different styles in their music videos we chose to analyse two more mainstream pop icons which are Pixie Lott and Cheryl Cole, and two more quirky artists which have indidvidual styles which are Ellie goulding and Ke$ha. Pixie Lott tends to wear black in most of her videos when they are relating to sad lyrics and to contrast the background colour of the set so she stands out. In the 'cry me out' and 'gravity' videos she has several costume changes however remains in black. She tends to wear floaty dresses so she can move around and dance however often wears tight fitting garments to emphasize her figure and add to her star image re-inforcing the fact that she is young, sexy and fashionable.
This is similar to the way Cheryl Cole is represented in her music videos through the use of costume. She tends to wear a variety of colours in her music videos however fits with the colour pallette of red, white and black. In Cheryl Cole's music videos she doesnt dance as much as Pixie Lott so her costumes are more to show off her figure so her star image is reinforced and due to the fact that she is a style icon her costumes focus more on reinforcing this aspect rather than making them based on practicality of being able to dance. Both pixie lott and Cheryl Cole are represented as being glamorous and fashionable which is strongly shown through their costumes and due to them being mainstream pop artists their costumes tend to follow current high street fashions.
However Ellie Goulding and are more quirky artists with a very individual style and a sense of mystery to them which is the image we want to create for our artist. Their music also crosses between the pop genre and electropop which is the genre of music our artist creates. Both Ellie Goulding and Ke$ha costumes tend to be more extravagant and tend to follow current and previous catwalk styles as this reflects upon their star image and the genre of music they create. Their costumes are based upon more extravangant designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen which reflects upon their original style of music
We chose to focus our costume research on four current artists; Pixie Lott, Cheryl Cole, Ellie Goulding and Ke$ha. Although these artists all have slightly different styles in their music videos we chose to analyse two more mainstream pop icons which are Pixie Lott and Cheryl Cole, and two more quirky artists which have indidvidual styles which are Ellie goulding and Ke$ha. Pixie Lott tends to wear black in most of her videos when they are relating to sad lyrics and to contrast the background colour of the set so she stands out. In the 'cry me out' and 'gravity' videos she has several costume changes however remains in black. She tends to wear floaty dresses so she can move around and dance however often wears tight fitting garments to emphasize her figure and add to her star image re-inforcing the fact that she is young, sexy and fashionable.
This is similar to the way Cheryl Cole is represented in her music videos through the use of costume. She tends to wear a variety of colours in her music videos however fits with the colour pallette of red, white and black. In Cheryl Cole's music videos she doesnt dance as much as Pixie Lott so her costumes are more to show off her figure so her star image is reinforced and due to the fact that she is a style icon her costumes focus more on reinforcing this aspect rather than making them based on practicality of being able to dance. Both pixie lott and Cheryl Cole are represented as being glamorous and fashionable which is strongly shown through their costumes and due to them being mainstream pop artists their costumes tend to follow current high street fashions.
However Ellie Goulding and are more quirky artists with a very individual style and a sense of mystery to them which is the image we want to create for our artist. Their music also crosses between the pop genre and electropop which is the genre of music our artist creates. Both Ellie Goulding and Ke$ha costumes tend to be more extravagant and tend to follow current and previous catwalk styles as this reflects upon their star image and the genre of music they create. Their costumes are based upon more extravangant designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen which reflects upon their original style of music
Synopsis:
Here is a brief synopsis of our music video and what we aim to achieve:
- Interactive projector with stop motion images played on it, artist is standing in front and camouflaged within the images, a lot of close ups used.
-In contrast bedroom scenes of the artist lying upside down with mono pod held camera for unstable shots for an edgy look.
- Close up of eyes and lips and body posture such as feet and toes
- Artist walks out of the frame into the bedroom with friends, putting on makeup and mirror shots.
- Different outfits and the reaction of her friends are shown, close ups of facial expressions, giggling and laughing.
- All cast exist the bedroom into london nightlife, city streets are displayed, small shots of cars and public transport.
- Close ups of feet movement perhaps introduce new props, balloons, party accessories.
- Resturant scene, includes close ups of drinks, dancing and partying, constrcuted dance moves and cuts put in place to make it more effective.
- Mid close up shot of artist leaning over the party in the empty resturant, looking onto the empty drinks and messy bar.
- Silohoutte of the artist in the same clothes and state from the party running up a hill into a sunrise with two balloons while camera remains in the same position and distance. Balloons are finally released and video fades into black.
- Interactive projector with stop motion images played on it, artist is standing in front and camouflaged within the images, a lot of close ups used.
-In contrast bedroom scenes of the artist lying upside down with mono pod held camera for unstable shots for an edgy look.
- Close up of eyes and lips and body posture such as feet and toes
- Artist walks out of the frame into the bedroom with friends, putting on makeup and mirror shots.
- Different outfits and the reaction of her friends are shown, close ups of facial expressions, giggling and laughing.
- All cast exist the bedroom into london nightlife, city streets are displayed, small shots of cars and public transport.
- Close ups of feet movement perhaps introduce new props, balloons, party accessories.
- Resturant scene, includes close ups of drinks, dancing and partying, constrcuted dance moves and cuts put in place to make it more effective.
- Mid close up shot of artist leaning over the party in the empty resturant, looking onto the empty drinks and messy bar.
- Silohoutte of the artist in the same clothes and state from the party running up a hill into a sunrise with two balloons while camera remains in the same position and distance. Balloons are finally released and video fades into black.
Ellie Goulding - Guns And Horses
Another music video we looked at for inspiration for our own was 'Guns and Horses' by Ellie Goulding. We chose to look at Ellie Goulding as another artist to influence our own as she has a different and kooky style which suits the genre of our song, Butterflies. The underlying narrative behind the Guns and Horses video depicts Ellie entering a mystical world, which is an idea we are trying to create as our artist leaves her own day to day life into the world of the song. Ellie is surrounded by odd and almost unhuman backing dancers, adding to the mise- en- scene of a new and mysterious world; who are also dressed in matching outfits, drawing the audiences attention to Ellie and her individual style. The video also uses lots of long shots to emphasise how the styling and star image of Ellie Goulding is very important to her appeal as an artist, we aim to use this idea in our music video as image and creating a 'superstar' persona for our artist is a very important aspect of our video.
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