Research of Music Videos- 2

 Like a Dream- Francis and the Lights

The video opens with a long shot of a man standing in a field, he is dressed in a suit with sunglasses and smart shoes. The sun behind him creates a silhouette effect. The lack of distractions and detail in the background means your eye is automatically drawn to the silhouetted figure. The choice of a spacious, countryside location challenges normal dance and music video conventions as the attention is all on him and his dancing. There is no distraction of a busy street or club full of people, it makes it obvious as to who the star is. 

As the music kicks in the man begins to dance, kicking his legs and moving along in time to the music. Although this video is simple, the contemporary and minimal feel creates a big effect. It is very different and unique, it attracted a lot of views on YouTube due to the weird and quirky approach taken to make this music video. The setting breaks conventions of most regular dance music videos yet it seems effective when highlighting the music and the moves choreographed. It proves that a big budget is not absolutely necessary when creating a successful and impactful music video.

The camera pans around him letting us get a good view of his outfit and the scenery, neither the outfit or the setting match and this develops the idea of it all being "Like a dream" as referenced by the song title.

A plane flies over his head almost too close for comfort, i believe this again references the song title as this is not a common occurrence and the outfit, setting, plane and dance moves are all creating a strange dream-like vibe.

The dancing is slowed down into slow motion and a mist fills the air, creating a foggy effect, much like a dream. The video ends abruptly with the man still dancing away before it finally cuts to black.

Research of Music Videos-

LSD- Thunderclouds

The video opens with a point of view shot which breaks general conventions of music videos usually opening with an establishing or close up shot. This immediately immerses the viewer as they share the point of view of characters within the music video, making them feel part of this psychedelic and bright technicolour world. The contrast created between the dark view from the telescope and the bright clouds in the sky create a hopeful and happy feel, like a light at the end of the tunnel.

We are then introduced to the stars of the music video through medium close ups, it appears as though they are in some sort of aircraft and searching for something, which is not made clear to the viewers just yet. The colour scheme of pastel yellows, purples and blues creates a very relaxing feel as it mimics a sunset. The shot lengths are both a couple of seconds long allowing the viewers to connect with the characters and receive an introduction.

The psychedelic feel is incorporated further as we notice a sort of yellow submarine influence, this can also be supported by the name "LSD" so we can assume this was on purpose. The acid influence really creates a vivid fever dream for the audience as we see the psychedelic breakthrough vision of a flying car and Labrinth sat afloat a cloud in lotus position, we can only assume is used to reference sitting atop "cloud nine".

This quickly cuts to the female star dancing on top of the flying vehicle while being followed by a small thundercloud, the dancing is choreographed very precisely and you can tell a lot of time and effort has gone into this. The long shots enable the viewer to see her every movement and how it flows in time to the music. The pastel colours create a soothing aesthetic and create contrast with the red vehicle and bright blue dress the star is seen wearing.

The dancing continues with varying medium close ups and long shots, enabling the audience to see her facial expressions. Her overly happy and excited expression communicates to the audience that something good has happened. Her outfit is comical and exaggerated for effect.

The psychedelic, third eye open feel is continued here as the idea of being on "cloud nine" is reiterated. The pastel pinks and purples also create contrast with the stars yellow outfit helping him to stand out, his hand is extended here as he sings, showing the detailed jewelry worn on his fingers. The look creates a 70's vibe as the colours and accessories were prominent features of the time.

The disequilibrium is established here, using an extreme close up of the vehicles meter and their red vehicle begins to fall from the sky.

Extreme long shot shows their vehicle plummeting down towards the ground.

Night has fallen while our stars have gathered around a campfire they notice one growing flower, Labrinth then illuminates the flower making it glow in a psychedelic and kaleidoscopic fashion as the sun begins to rise again behind them. 

The stars continue to be amused by the thundercloud they have now befriended and suddenly realise they can use the thunderclouds electricity to jumpstart their vehicle. In this three shot you can see all of the stars working together to fix the vehicle. 

Although they are now airborne, they face a new problem, a second disequilibrium, as they drive straight into a large storm. Our star who was previously dancing atop of the vehicle has begun to dance again, switching between medium close ups and long shots we can see her intense choreography matching the intense atmosphere portrayed within this scene. 

It then switches to a close up of Labrinth as he uses his hallucinogenic-type powers 

As the camera pans out it is revealed that he is in fact floating while focusing on using his abstract mind powers.

A gap is created in the clouds revealing the warm sunlight beyond the storm, this symbolises hope and new beginnings as the characters travel through it. This acts as a second equilibrium.

The female star says goodbye to the thundercloud as their journey comes to an end, it is a sad but also happy moment as the thundercloud returns home and the female star has been brought to safety. 

The video ends with all characters present again overlooking a beautiful landscape consisting of mountains and a dusky sky. The extreme longshot enables the viewer to share the view and the happiness of the characters as their journey is finalised.

Research Of Websites

Different Band and Artists Websites:

Miami Horror: This bands website offers a simplistic structure using contrasting colours. The plain white background contrasts with the brightly coloured orange, pink and blue suits and shapes used to promote their new album. The use of geometric shapes creates a sort of synth-pop 80's feel which is relevant to the bands style and genre, creating a brand identity. These distinct elements work together to create synergy as they from a rather vibrant, fun and uplifting representation of the band and their music. The attention is drawn to the artists as they are featured at the top of the page in the web banner, this is used to attract an audience and indicate the kind of content available to them. They are all looking to camera to make a connection with their audience and draw them in. The use of colour represents the artists as fun and quirky, although their expression contrasts this as they stare to camera with a straight face. They seem to be bending their bodies in an awkward position as if dancing or moulding into different shapes which could be linked to the use of shapes to promote their new album. This is supported by the use of "Buy on vinyl now" written directly below the image. The use of bright colours and shapes are also used as common conventions of synth-pop music and 80's dance artists and this helps to emphasise their 80's influence. The multimedia features of imagery and video enables you to gain an understanding of the bands identity and style, this makes the sites content more entertaining and exciting.The fun and colourful repetitive features on the site represents the artists as happy and rather expressive. The navigational features are placed above and around the artists, these help to guide the user through their content. Cross media platforms are used as a link to their Instagram page is also featured, which enables the user to have yet another connection with the band, providing them a place to communicate with them and view the bands exciting and different life. This creates a greater level of engagement

This bands website appears to be breaking conventions as no images of the band members are actually available, this creates a rather postmodern representation of the artists. Instead they choose to use art and abstract imagery to create a brand identity. from this we can assume the genre is psychedelic pop or rock as the images are twisted, colourful and full of repeating shapes or patterns. The lack of the bands presence on the website represents them as  rather selfless, as if the band is putting the music first over themselves. The navigation links are written in white and are rather simplistic, they are dotted around the sides and offer the users an opportunity to buy their merchandise, promoting their music even further through the use of clothing. cross media convergence is used again here as they have used links to their social media platforms. The logo for both Instagram and Facebook are featured on the left hand side of the website and are something a younger audience will instantly recognise. This enables a level of engagement to be achieved between the band and their audience as they are able to comment on photos and interact with the artists. New social tools allow for new kind of group forming therefore this kind of engagement allows others to express their views and generate larger fanbases for each band. Their merchandise page creates synergy as it links to the home page and the aesthetic of the bands genre and style. The psychedelic theme is carried on and users have the option to purchase vinyls, albums and t-shirts. This promotes the band further through other media marketing forms, this enables their listeners to support their favourite band by wearing their merchandise. The link to their tours page is, in my opinion, very boring and simplistic, although it is easy to read it is not very exciting and the synergy of psychedelic features and bright colours is not carried through here therefore the interest is lost here and i find it hard to link this to the band. 

Peach pit's website is very similar to the first website, the use of contrasting colours and colourful clothing creates a similar feel. The artists are featured in the web banner on the homepage, all are looking to camera, again following conventions and creating an immediate connection with the audience. This offers an almost instant introduction to the members of the band.They are all wearing rather muted colours which draws attention to their faces and the items in their hands. Each of them are holding something in their hands with 3 of them eating or drinking, this creates a rather comedic image and represents them as a funny and more self aware type of band. Their vintage aesthetic of muted colours and grey tones helps to identify their indie and alternative genre of music. The name of the band is in the centre of the image and the navigation links are centred below, ensuring the band remains as the centre of attention. Again, multimedia platforms are used such as video and imagery, they also use cross media convergence linking to their instagram account to further the connection with their listeners.

Principle Photography

In preparation for my music video and website I took some promotional photographs of my stars and band, some on location and others in a studio. These will be used to help create a final star image of my band and be used all over the website to promote the artists and create as brand identity. The images help to capture the persona of the stars and their role within my music video.

I have uploaded my favourite photographs from the shoot to Flickr and I am currently waiting for feedback.


I still have a few more images to be taken on location with the other artists, I am also hoping to take photographs with another model to reach the briefs requirements and provide more multimedia features on my website. I also hope to capture some more candid style pictures of the band and crew to really capture their personality and represent them as fun and relatable for our audience. This will also give insight into the production of the music video.

What I have learnt:

Research of Institutions/ Distribution Channels

Universal Music  Group: 

Universal Music is the largest and most powerful major music label in the world, responsible for 29% of the worlds music sales, it was established in 1999 but was supposedly founded in 1934 by Decca Records. It is owned by the  French media conglomerate Vivendi, a mass media company located in Paris which has activities in music, video, film, television and video games. Universal Music has always been a large and rather dominant company as it is a part of Universal pictures, one of the largest film production companies in the entire world. Because of their big status they began to dominate the music market and proceeded to become the biggest record after they purchased EMI, a former British music company, in 2012. Universal Music group currently has over 7,000 employees, with a revenue of over $7 billion and work with some of the biggest A-list artists such as J-Cole, Kanye West  and Ariana Grande. Universal music group also co-developed Vevo,  a site designed for music videos which delivers ad free content and streaming of similar music content. Universal music group currently own a large range of smaller labels such as Island Records and Mercury Records. A record label such as this one generates with a more mainstream and wide demographic targeting all ages as they have signed a number of recognisable names and are a major record company with recognition all over the world. A big competitor for UMG would be Sony Music Corporation as it generates an estimated revenue of $66.5b with over 130,000 employees.

Here are just a few more.

Youtube: 

YouTube is an American video sharing website, it now operates as one of Googles subsidiaries since it was bought by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion. It allows users to share, upload, favourite videos and comment on them which creates a large amount of interaction between audience and creator. The site was created by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim in 2005. Most content posted to youtube is uploaded by individuals but larger corporations choose to upload content such as BBC and Vevo. Available content includes TV shows, video clips and music videos. As of February last year, at least 400 hours worth of content had been uploaded and over a billion hours of content is watched every day. YouTube allows a place for media corporations to upload and for bands, singers or artists to upload their work in a safe space for free. Here, listeners can listen to their content and enjoy the visuals of a music video at the same time.  More than half of youtube views come from mobile devices, suggesting their most frequent viewers are younger and more technologically able. User Percentage by Age 18-24 – 11%, 25-34 – 23%, 35-44 – 26%, 45-54 – 16%, 50-64 – 8%, 65+ – 3%, unknown age – 14%. YouTubes target market is the broadest of them all with videos on everry category imaginable its impossible to pinpoint a specific targeted audience. This is great for bands posting music videos because it means they are guaranteed to generate listeners and fans.

Job List

Magazine/ Music Video Decision/Research

1. look at what may be missing in the market right now 
2. Find examples of other fashion magazines from Bauer media 
3. look at conventions and codes 
4. research into androgynous, unisex fashion. 
5. how can this be applied to the TA 
6. look at shot types and different magazine issues from different dates ( autumn addition, summer addition) 

There appears to be a gap in the market for more androgynous and convention-breaking fashion magazines. By using a mixture of more indie, androgynous fashion magazines ( such as INDIE)  and high class avant-garde style fashion magazines (STILETTO), i feel we can successfully reach the desired target audience. 

Music Video 

1. find song, create an idea from this 
2.  think about representations/ intertextuality 
3. relate this to TA 
4. look at their websites

My Initial Response to the Briefs

I have decided to choose brief 4, Music Video. For me i feel like i have the most experience with music video and this something i am comfortable with doing. I feel i can meet the requirements and create a successful music video using the dance music genre. It is well known that dance is a wide genre of music so it is very likely that i will be able to find a song that i enjoy very much without it being a stereotypical club dance song. Using a narrative style with conventions of dance music videos and fast paced editing i believe i can develop an intriguing and successful dance music video.