Example Research

Hello Year 9 and 10!

For your summer homework you have to finish analysing 6 music videos. 

Some of you have been asking for an A* example of this so I have included 3 for you to look at. 

Do not copy anything from these examples or you will get 0 marks!

Abdullah

Sabrin

Emman

Good luck! :)

Miss Fowler

Summer project: Music video research and preliminary exercise

Over the summer, you need to carry out crucial research and planning activities for Assignment 3: Music video.

This work will set you up perfectly to achieve a top grade in Assignment 3 - remember, it's worth the same as the first two assignments put together. Work through the following tasks before coming back in September:

Assignment 3: Music video research

1) Complete your music video research over the summer by choosing at least six interesting music videos and writing an analysis of each one (minimum 150 words per video). In total, you need at least 1,000 words of research but many people write more than this. 

You'll find more guidance and an example analysis on this blog post outlining the research task. Ms Fowler has also helpfully suggested potential videos to analyse for each key convention of music video if you're unsure what to choose.


Preliminary exercise: planning and filming

When you first come back in September we'll be completing a music video Preliminary Exercise. This is a brilliant opportunity for you to practice the skills of editing you'll need for creating your three minute music video.

Task: Create a 30-second music video to a song of your choice

1) Choose a song and print / copy and paste the lyrics into Word (must be clean version or radio edit - specified by exam board).

2) Come up with some ideas for potential videos linked to the song and lyrics. Remember, you can use narrative, performance or visual effects - the more creative the better.

3) Film 1-2 minutes of initial footage using your phone or your own camera. Important: you must be able to capture the video files from the device. Remember to film landscape too!

4) Bring the video files into school on a USB or memory card to edit in school in the first week back in September.


This is all due in the first lesson back: Thursday 7 September. Good luck!

Assignment 3 - Research and Planning

Assignment 3 - Research and Planning Task

There are 15 marks available for Research and Planning for Assignment 3 - Music Video Production. 

One of the ways you can earn these marks is by researching existing music videos and analysing them. 

Open a new Word document and call it 'Assignment 3- Research and Planning. Existing Product Research.'  

For each music video, you need to write 150 words commenting on:

• Introducing the artist / band - what genre they are and a bit about them
• Mise-en-scene: props, setting, actors, costume
• Iconography and Genre
• Narrative element
• Performance element - artist singing or lip synching / dance moves
• The camera angles, movements and editing (number of shots)

Find a music video that fits into each of these categories:

1) Creative Concept - contains really interesting, unique ideas or visuals that are not neccessarily related to the song. 

Examples: 

• First of the Year- Skrillex
• Naughty Boy- Running
• Nojahoda- nojahoda
• OK Go- The One Moment
• Ok Go- This Too Shall Pass
• Bjork - All is Full of Love

2) Narrative - a video that has a clear storyline - usually related to the lyrics. This lends a film-like quality to the music video. 

Examples: 

• Katy Perry- Last Friday Night
• Ellie Goulding- Love Me Like You Do
• Ed Sheeran - Shape of You
• Adele- Hello

3) Performance Element- This is when the music video focuses on a performance from the artist - usually lip-synching and co-ordinated dance moves. 

Examples:

• Bruno Mars- Uptown Funk
• Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball
• Beyonce- Crazy in Love
• Michael Jackson- Thriller
• Beyonce- Run the World
• One Direction- What Makes you Beautiful
• DJ Khalid featuring Rihanna- Wild Thoughts
• Progidy- Firestarter

4) Camerawork (use of camera shots and camera movements) and interesting editing (number of shots, how they are cut together)

Examples:

• About You-XXYYXX
• Walk off The Earth- Red Hands
• Nojahoda- nojahoda
• Linkin Park- Breaking the Habit
• Sigur Ros- Glosoli
• Alt J- Breezeblocks

5) Mise-en-scene: everything you can see in the video - setting, costume, props and characters

Examples: 

• Imagine Dragons- Radioactive
• Eminem- Till I Collapse
• Aqua- Cartoon Heroes
• Katy Perry- Last Friday Night
• Missy Elliott- Work It
• Lady Gaga- Bad Romance
• Michael Jackson- Thriller
• Swedish House Mafia- Greyhound

6) Visual Effects and clever editing- This is when the music video features amazing special effects such as CGI.

Examples:

• Zayn Malik- Pillowtalk
• Nosia- Machine Gun
• Robbie Williams- Rock DJ
• Gotye- Somebody That I Used to Know
• Eminem- Rap God
• Fun- We Are Young
• Aphex Twin- Come to Daddy
• Chemical Brothers- Let Forever Be

There is an example below this for OK Go's video- This Too Shall Pass

Mr Halsey cover work: Tuesday 4 July

Year 10: apologies - I'm out on a course so will miss our lesson on Tuesday.

The work is very simple: use this additional lesson to check everything is up-to-date in your coursework folder and print any improved work. Remember: put a post-it note on any improved version so I know to re-mark it.

If your coursework folder is up-to-date, you can make a start on your research for Assignment 3: Music video. Your first research task will be to write 1,000 words analysing six music videos so you can begin selecting the videos you will focus on and making notes on why they are so effective.

I'll be back Thursday to make an official start on Assignment 3. Good luck in the meantime!

Assignment 3: Existing product research

The first part of Assignment 3 is Research and Planning. This begins with existing product research - analysing existing music videos and learning from them for our own productions.

Existing product research: task

Research six music videos, writing a minimum of 150 words for each video. Try focusing on a different aspect for each video:

Video 1: Creative concept / visual effects
Video 2: Narrative
Video 3: Performance element
Video 4: Camerawork (shots/movement)
Video 5: Mise-en-scene (everything you can see in the video - setting, costume, props etc.)
Video 6: Editing (inc. counting the shots in the video)

Example:

Writing analysis

You should embed a screengrab from the video into your Word document along with the title of the song and artist. In addition, you need to identify the specific aspect of media analysis you are focusing on to make it clear what you are analysing (e.g. camerawork, editing, narrative etc.) 

For each video you need to make sure you don’t just describe what is happening, but instead are making analytical comments about the following features using key media terminology:

• Camera movement, shots, angles
• Editing transitions, special effects
• Mise-en-scene (costume, props, location, facial expression, lighting and colour etc.)
• Representation – how the artist / band / characters are represented through these technical elements above
• Genre of the music and how this is signified in the video (eg iconography, colour, people etc.)
• Intertextuality – whether the video features any intertextual references, where and why? Intertextuality is when another media text (e.g. film, TV programme) is referred to or suggested in the video.
• Audience reception – how might an audience react to or view the video?
• Audience pleasures - why might an audience watch / enjoy this video (Uses & Gratifications theory - Blumler and Katz).

You can use videos of your choice, but if you need some guidance these are some memorable videos that you could use as inspiration:

Creative concept: OK GO - Here It Goes Again



Narrative/editing: Coldplay - The Scientist



Visual effects: Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be

You will need to complete this research for homework as a summer project - deadline set by your Media teacher.