Research/ Case studies

Track 1

Pharrell Williams - Happy

  Synopsis 

This music video is about pharell showing how happy he is and includes a lot of the public being happy as well

   Performance

Walking around different locations with different people, dancing. In a church dancing. Every single location dancing. Lip syncing throughout.  

 Narrative

Not really a straight narrative telling a story. More random and has people of the public engaging with the music video all knowing the lyric

 Actors
Random people of the public. Pharrell himself. Etc.etc
Editing
In the beginning of the video, the editing is at a slow pace, when pharrel is in the alley way. Also the lighting is low key and has a green tone to it. This gives it a grunge/ underground type of feel to the video. The next scene is him in side a ballroom where he is dancing and the lighting changes to high key. Also this editing is still one long shot. there hasn't been any cuts between the last scene and this new scene. As the video carries on; there's fast pace cuts between the different actors in the video.  

Camera
The camera Pans across the wall. We then see the music artist in a mid shot showing his body language as he dances with the music. In the ballroom it turns into a long shot where you can see his whole body and body language and his clothes.
Props

Wearing a top hat, everyone wearing casual clothing, different people with different styles all in one music video

   Location

Outside in the streets, inside a church/ballroom in alley way, all in different locations.

 What makes the promo different?

Usually music videos follow the singer/ rapper around as they tell a story that’s related to the lyrics. More of a visual representation of the lyrics. However in this music video. Its more random and has many different people who don’t really own the song dancing inside it. Which gives it that random element.

Ideas that I could use
The ideas that i could take away from this video is the fact that it is in public roads and outside locations. And the shots of the actors walking towards the cameras as they lipsync. I also like the performance element of the video and i would like my groups music video to have a performance element just like the ones in the music video of dancing.

 track 2

Drake ft. lil Wayne, kanye West, Eminem – Forever

   Performance

Each of the artists who have a verse do a performance when it’s their turn to rap.

    Narrative

There isn’t much of a narrative except the fact that they’re rapping in a club

    Actors

Each of the rappers and their crew in the club, drake Kanye west, Eminem and lil Wayne

   Props

High key lighting, drinks, fire, smoke, lights coming down. Different camera angles.

    
Camera
The camera angles in the beginning of the music video when drake is rapping his verse is a low angle shot which makes him look like he is in power and above us. It makes us feel as if we are looking up to him. There are many mid shots as well as long shots which show off what the artists are wearing and show off their body language.
Editing
The editing in this video is quite fast pace and there are many different lighting that go on in every shot. The beginning has red ish kind of lights which gives us the feeling that the artists is in the club or somewhere that has constantly changing lights. This adds a fun atmosphere to the video as well as the face pace cuts between the shots.
Location

In a dark place with different colours lighting up on their face, Eminem is outside for his verse and lil Wayne is sitting in what looks like a VIP section of a club with women surrounding him while he drinks

     What makes the promo different?

In this music video you’d think that they’d be throwing cash around and showing the money they have but instead they’re just in they’re just rapping their music and each of them have a different image that they want to portray as Eminem. The only white3 one out of all of them is outside in the rain wearing a hood and surrounded by other black men who are also in hoods while he raps.
Ideas that I could use
The ideas that I could take away from this music video is the different types of locations which makes the music video look more professional. I would also use the types of different editing techniques that have been used in this music video as the fast pace cuts are highly effective. The special effects of the fire sprinkles and the fade in the beginning may be something that would make my groups music video more interesting too.

Track 3

Rihanna And Kanye West & Paul McCartney - Four Five Seconds 

Performance:  

The performance element in this music video is mainly just un choreographed dancing and lip syncing the words. But Paul McCartney is playing the guitar. 

Narrative

There is no narrative to this music video as they're all in a studio which limits the story line.

Actors

There are the 3 people who are in the song as the actors, in this video it is very simplistic so there isn't any back up dancers or crew members or random people of the public like there is in the other two tracks. The fact that we have paul McCartney in the video is showing how they have combined old school Rock with new RnB and Hip Hop music showing the audience that they can mesh the two in perhaps bring in new audiences.

Props

The props used in this music video is the guitar that is played. Also, all three of the artists are wearing denim clothing. This could go with the image they're trying to portray.

Camera

The camera angles used in this music video in the beginning was an establishing mid shot of Rihanna, on a side profile. showing us her body language and facial expression. As the video goes on we get a close up of her facial expression and get to see up close her emotions. Inbetween this we get a quick long shot clip of Paul playing the guitar but he's facing away from the camera. When she finishes her part of the song, the camera slowly ans out and shows us her full denim outfit and then we get a close up of kanye west in that same position we saw rihanna in the beginning of the video. however it was an extreme close up showing us his facial expressions. In this video, the camera angles don't really vary as they just stick to the close up mid shots or long shots. In the end of the video we have a long shot of the hree artists while rihanna lip syncs.

Editing 

The editing in this video is very simplistic. The whole video is in black and white which gives it that very stripped down and bare feeling. which is in contrast to many music videos that RnB or Hip Hop artists usually do as they like to go all out however this is edited in a slow pace and given a black and white theme. This also adds a serious tone to the music video and shows that whatever they're singing about is serious to them and deep. In the middle of rihanna singing we have quick shots where we see paul playing the guitar, then the shot quickly goes back to rihanna singing. We have really long scenes where we focus on the facial expressions that suggest frustration with the artists.

Location

The location of the music video is in a studio with a white back drop while the whole video is in black and white. This also adds on to the simplistic and bare feeling they're trying to portray.

What makes the promo Different?

What makes this promo different is the fact that they're not doing anything that comes off like they overly planned everything like their dance moves or set it in a club where there would be the typical portrayal of women dancing half naked. Instead they're in a studio with just the music and the artist which gives it that raw feeling and gives the music video an edge.

Ideas That I could use

I liked the way that they did the whole silhouette effect of the side of the artist's face and I would like to use that in my music video with my group. This would be very effective and looks very professional.