For my A2 media coursework I was asked to create and produce a music video, and also to create my own ‘identity’ for my artist/performer. For my music video I have used the song ‘Love the way you lie, part two’ By ‘Rihanna and Eminem’
After researching the history of music videos and looking at some existing music videos, I have found that music videos can be presented in a number of different forms. These forms consist of performance, which includes the artist performing their song within the music video. Also narrative, which consists of a story which is presented within the music video. These two aspects can also be merged together so the video consists of both a narrative and a performance, which is what I have used in my music video. Except I have done this quite differently, as I have got my artists performing to the camera, but then have different people acting out the narrative parts. The narrative I have used is all about domestic violence in relationships. After researching and analysing Rihanna’s video of ‘Love the way you lie’ released 8th June 2010, from the institutions ‘Shady’, ‘Aftermath’ and ‘Interscope’. I understand that this video is also about domestic violence, but I would say that this video seems to be glamorising domestic violence rather than putting across to the audience that it is a terrible thing to go through. One way that I think that it is being glamorised is because it uses the popular actors ‘Megan Fox’ and ‘Dominic Monaghan’, throughout the video Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan are constantly fighting and making up, it is a perfect example of a love/hate relationship, but the way that they keep going back to each other after all the fights may suggest to the audience that it is okay to go back to a person if they are violent towards you. Whereas in the narrative in my music video, I have tried to show a more realistic side to a story like this. The way that it is not a happy environment to be in and show the real bruises and physical and mental scars that it can leave you with.
Throughout my music video I have used, developed and challenged the forms and conventions of an R&B and rap video. I have done this using all aspects of cinematography, mise en scene, editing and sound. With the mise en scene in my video I have used the forms and conventions of a typical R&B and rap video, I have done this by using certain locations and costumes, for example, I have got the singer I have used for Eminem’s part of the song to wear a vest type top, which is a recognisable aspect of a rapper’s dress sense, especially Eminem, as he has worn these types of tops in his other music videos including ‘Love the way you lie’, ‘Cleanin’ out my closet’ which was released 17th September 2002, also from the institutions ‘Shady’, ‘Aftermath’ and ‘Interscope’ and also many other of his videos. I have also dressed the girl acting out Rihanna’s part of the song in a long black dress, although I know that I was trying to not glamorise domestic violence in this video, I still think that the artists should be portrayed as quite glamorous as this is a typical convention of an R&B music video, so I thought that this would make the genre of my music video more recognisable to the target audience. The particular locations that I used when filming my video I thought would fit in well with the genre of the song that I chose, the graffiti walls and the wall with the wind turbine in the background both showed urban areas, and I thought that this would make a good impact in my video and fit in well with my chosen song. Another location that fits well with my genre is when Sarah who is playing Rihanna’s part of the song, is stood in front of a wired fence. Not only does this fit in with the urban scene of my video, but also this may fit in with one of Rihanna’s other videos, ‘What’s my name? Ft. Drake’ released 29th October 2010, from the album ‘Loud’ from the institution ‘Def Jam’.
I think that it would fit in with this video as Rihanna is performing in front of a wired fence in this music video, and I have found that sometimes within the same R&B album parts of the song link to another song, or another aspect of the particular artists music career, even if it is just one single word, one example of this is in ‘Love the way you lie (part two)’ Eminem mentions the word ‘aftermath’ which is the name of the institution that produced this song. Although I know that this may not have been an intentional link, people who are big fans of Eminem may recognise this when listening to the song.
When thinking about the cinematography for my music video, I decided that it would look good to have some hand held shots, but after watching the full final outcome of my video I think that I would have preferred to used a tripod throughout the filming process of my video. Although the hand held shots were intentional, sometimes I think that it doesn’t look like it was, and it doesn’t look very professional, although in some places it has worked better than others. Throughout the video I have used a range of different camera shots and movements, including close ups,
medium shots, low angle shots etc. Each of these shots I have chosen for a particular reason, for example on the rapping part of my video, in some points I have used low angle shots to show dominance and power from the male view. In the parts where I have shown the after effects of domestic violence (which is myself in these parts) I have just used a medium close up with me looking straight into the camera throughout this sequence. I have done this to make it look like quite a vulnerable and upsetting scene. At the end of my video, I have edited these parts of myself looking into the camera to dissolve into each other quite quickly, repeating the shots over again, this is to tell the story that this domestic violence keeps happening over and over it doesn’t stop. The way that the shots dissolve into each other makes the shot turn quite bright, which could represent the blackout between the violence. Throughout the full video I have presented the female roles as the protagonists, and the male roles as the antagonists. I have done this because after researching the ‘Love the way you lie (part two)’ song on Wikipedia, I have found that this version of the song is from the females perspective, whereas the original ‘Love the way you lie’ is from the male perspective. So obviously from the female perspective, the males would be the antagonists.
In my music video I have used both performance and narrative. For the narrative part of my video I believe that I have challenged the conventions of a typical multi-stranded narrative structure, this is because although I do have three different aspects to my music video, two of them do not have a particular set story to them. Although we do not necessarily see a story to all parts of my music video, I think that the verisimilitude is quite strong as the emotions can be clearly read from each of the characters within the video.
I would say that the main aspect used in the main narrative part of my music video would be genre; this is because the female character is shown to be a typical girl, being scared and being the less dominant person in the relationship. When researching existing music videos, I found a few videos that used this kind of narrative; one example of this is Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ music video, released 2nd December 1983 from the institution ‘Epic Records’.
Throughout the process of planning and producing my music video, I have used new media in all different kinds of ways to help the final outcome of my video. Just from using ‘YouTube’ to research and analyse existing music videos, to using the new digital technology editing suites, to put my video together and edit it. I have found that using these new media technologies has helped my final outcome drastically; it has given me much more creative freedom. These new technologies have made it much easier to make a professional looking video, even things just as small as making the shots shorter have helped to improve my video. Although the use of these new media technologies are a big advantage to my final outcome, the one main disadvantage of new media is that it becomes the most dominant part of the production of the video, and you may spend too much time editing to make the video as best as it can be, which can limit the time you have to do research and planning.
Another thing which is very time consuming during the production process is the filming of the video, having to go to all of the different locations and get the shots correct is actually quite hard and a lot of the time cannot be done straight away on the first shot so parts have to be re-filmed. I would say that I shot much more footage than what I actually used in my final video, in my group we shot about an hour’s worth of film or more, and obviously didn’t use most of it because the song is only 5 minutes long.
Not only did my group have to produce the music video for this brief, but we also had to produce two ancillary texts to go with them, these were promotional campaigns which we would use to advertise our video. We could choose from producing either a digipak, magazine poster or a website, so I chose to produce a magazine poster and a website, both using Photoshop. I think that the ancillary texts are probably the weakest part of my coursework outcome; this is because I was very limited with time towards the end of the project and I left my ancillary texts until last. Although I think that my ancillary texts are weak, I do think that they fit in with my main text (music video), I think that this is because Sarah, who is the main girl in my music video is recognisable on my main images from the music video, also I have used quite a dull colour scheme which fits in with my music video as I would not say that it is a very cheerful video.
Once my music video was finished I produced a questionnaire so that I could receive some audience feedback about my video to find out what my target audience thought were the advantages and disadvantages of my final outcome. On my questionnaire I asked a range of questions from personal ones like ‘How old are you?’ to specific questions about my video like ‘What do you think could be improved?’ The reason I asked questions to the audience like to find out their age was to find out the different opinions of a different range of age groups. My target audience before my final music video was completed was around the age 17-30. Now that I have my completed music video and my audience feedback I think that this was the correct age range that my music video would appeal to. This is because from my questionnaires I have found that this age group seemed to find my music video more appealing and interesting, whereas this may have been a different case if the audience member was a lot older or a lot younger. I then asked more specific questions about my video to find out exactly what individuals liked and didn’t like about my video, and then if one thing was written a number of times, I know that I have produced something that stands out in my video, one thing that did come up a few times was that the audience seemed to like the locations my group had chosen for the video, particularly the graffiti locations.
