Goodwin's Theory

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

Mood Board for Our Music Video

Genre Characteristics -POP

Pop music can be defined as "a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz and folk musics". Although pop music is often seen as oriented towards the singles charts it is not the sum of all chart music, which has always contained songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs, while pop music as a genre is usually seen as existing and developing separately. Thus "pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre, aimed at a youth market, often characterized as a softer alternative to rock and roll.

Musicologists often identify the following characteristics as typical of the pop music genre:

• an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology
• an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities
• an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, over live performance
• a tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments
• much pop music is intended to encourage dancing, or it uses dance-oriented beats or rhythms

The main medium of pop music is the song, often between two and a half and three and a half minutes in length, generally marked by a consistent and noticeable rhythmic element, a mainstream style and a simple traditional structure. Common variants include the verse-chorus form, with a focus on melodies and catchy hooks, and a chorus that contrasts melodically, rhythmically and harmonically with the verse. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment. The lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions.

Storyboard and Shotlist

Mise en Scene Research

We will use three main locations for our music video. One of the locations will be in a car, driving down a road to represent the journey of the song. We will also use a stage, likely in the drama studio, for the dance routines in the video. Our final location will be at a park, in Milton. This is to show how the theme affects all parts of life.

We will be using a variety of props including a car for the majority of our video. We will also be using lights for the dance section to make the performers stand out from the surroundings.
Because of the different locations that we will be having, we will also have different costumes for the different parts. For the section in the drama studio, because of the dance routine, the costume would need to be voyeuristic to meet the conventions of pop music.

Artist Research

The Saturdays are a British-Irish girl group who formed in 2007, and consists of five members; Una Healy, Mollie King, Frankie Sandford, Rochelle Wiseman and Vanessa White. They have scored ten UK Top 10 singles with only a eleven singles released. In July 2011, it was announced that the band have sold nearly 2 million records in the United Kingdom alone.

The Saturdays were originally signed to Fascination Records, a sub-label of Polydor Records. Their first studio album, Chasing Lights, was recorded during May and June 2008 with input from multiple producers and song writers. The group supported Girls Aloud on their Tangled Up Tour before the release of their first single, "If This Is Love". As well as supporting Girls Aloud, The Saturdays also supported the Jonas Brothers at their Hammersmith Apollo gig.Chasing Lights was released in October 2008 and peaked at number 9 on the UK Albums Chart. The groups next singles were "Up" and "Issues" both of which charted well. The group also did a cover of "Just Can't Get Enough" for Comic Relief 2009.  In May 2010, the band teamed up with Manchester United and they will single at a pre-match concert at Old Trafford. The band released a fifth single from Chasing Lights, "Work".  Their first headlining tour, The Work Tour had twenty-seven dates. In 2008 and 2009, the Saturdays appeared in adverts for several products including a brand of deodorant, tampons, mobile phones, an operating system, and hair removal products. The band was named as models for hair removal product, Veet. The band later became new faces of major campign of Impulse women's deodorant. The Saturdays said that fashion is a huge part of the band, saying people look up to them as their icons. 

The band released the mini album/extended play, Headlines! on 16 August 2010. The project's lead single, "Missing You" was released on 8 August 2010. The second single "Higher", was released on 29 September 2010. Flo Rida recorded a new version of "Higher". After Flo Rida beat the group to number one for the second time, he offered to do a collaboration with the band. The week after "Higher" was released, they re-issued Headlines!, including the new Flo Rida version of "Higher" and three other tracks which were on their previous album Wordshaker. The Saturdays announced their second national tour in the UK, The Headlines Tour. The Saturdays were given their own reality TV show, by ITV2, The Saturdays: 24/7. The show was to follow the Saturdays every step – from gigs, photo-shoots and TV appearances to driving lessons, surprise birthday sky-dives and hanging out with family and friends. Their autobiography, The Saturdays: Our Story was released on 25 October 2010.

The group began work on their second studio album in early March 2009, whilst performing on their first headlining tour, The Work Tour. Wordshaker generated generally favorable reviews amongst critics upon its release. The album's lead single, "Forever Is Over" was released on 4 October 2009 and debuted at number-two. The second single to be released from Wordshaker was "Ego". 

The group announced they were working on their third full-length studio album in late 2010. The first single released from the album was "Notorious". The single was released digitally on May 22, 2011 in the UK. Their second single from their third album, "All Fired Up" was released on September 4, 2011. The group is set to embark on their third tour "All Fired Up Arena Tour in December 2011.

Had it with Today Lyrics Analysis

Woke up this morning, feeling bad
Almost forgot what day I had
And there was something not quite right
Cos' everything was so against me I had no power to fight
And I was all alone, ohhh


Looking at this first section, it seems like the song has a negative theme which contradicts the tempo of the song. 
In our music video, we will show the performers getting into the car and setting off, with just the driver singing along to the words.


I've had it with today
Wish it were yesterday
I can't wait for tomorrow
It's just one of those days
When nothing goes my way
At least I know it will past and elaspe


After looking at the chorus, you can see that the song builds on from the negativity of the first verse, but adds that there a positive end to everything despite what situation you are in.
For the chorus, we will have all the girls singing together. Because of the recurrence of the chorus, we will have the girls singing in the different locations of the video.


I've fallen sick and cannot smile
I'm hardening up inside (ooohhh)
Even the weather shows my pain (shows my pain)
If life were like this constantly I think I'd surely go insane
The pitch feeds my pain
To my veins, ohhh


In this verse, there is a lot of physical references to show that the pain is physical as well as emotional. The use of "sick", "cannot smile" "pain" and "insane" all shows the extent of the problems.
Like the first verse, we will have a sole singer rather than the whole group. this is done to emphasize the personal feelings of the lyrics whereas the chorus is more like a group feeling.


Oohh
If there were no lows, there'd be no highs
I'm glad now I've realised this low can only go
Higher and higher...


At this point of the song, there is a positive look on things, with the lyrics showing that things can always get better.
Again for this section, we will have another individual singer which will represent giving hope to a group.


I've had it with today
Ohh-ohh, I've had it
It's just one of those days
Just one of those days, ohh-ohhh
I wish it were tomorrow


This section is similar to the chorus, but because of the differences, will be sung by the final singer.
In this part, is re-emphasizing the troubles that they have but by saying "I wish i were tomorrow" shows that she has understood what has been said and is looking forward to the bad times to improve.


Had it with today, had it with today
Oh-oh-whoa-oh


To represent the end of the song, the final two lines will be sung by the driver who started the song. This shows that the song has done a full circle and that the group are in a better position than when they started. This will also  be shown from the car journey, as they will leave somewhere like an ordinary car park and will finish at a nice location.
Throughout the video will be a variety of locations, this will show how much of an impact the problems have on all aspects of their lives.

Song choice ideas

The Saturdays - Had it with today
We chose this song because it has a noticeable beat and therefore will be easy to cut on the beat. We think the video for this could be about the aftermath of a breakup.

Janelle Monae - Wonderland
We chose this song as it would be interesting to do as it is an unusual song and would allow for lots of creativity.


Git Fresh - Booty Music
We chose this song as it would be quiet easy to do as we could very closely follow the conventions of a rap video yet still have it being original and unique.

Michel Gondry - Auter Theory

Michel Gondry

Gondry was born in France. He started out as a drummer in a French rock band called oui oui. He was very inspired by the film Le Voyage Balloon. He said ‘When I watch this movie, I dream I’m flying and then I do stories where people are flying. I think it’s directly influencing.’

He started creating music videos for his band, which caught the attention of famous music artist Bjork. Gondry soon went on to direct a total of 7 music videos for Bjork before moving onto directing music videos for other artist such as; Daft Punk, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers, Radio Head, and Beck.

He pioneered the bullet time technique, which was later, used in the Matrix trilogy of films. In 1998 he created an advert for Smirnoff vodka using this technique. In 2001 he directed his first feature film Human Nature with mixed reviews, after this he also directed Eternal of the Spotless mind, the Science of Sleep and most recently The Green Hornet.

Gondry has directed many feature films, shorts, documentaries, music videos and advertisements. He has garnered much respect for his unique style of directing and has become quite famous for this.

Foo Fighters – Everlong

This video proves Auter Theory as the video is very different to a usual video but it features some cool effects with the transition from dream to reality shown by water being run in front of the camera and the visuals switching from black and white to colour.

During the fights between the guy and the beast men the guy manages to increase his hand size which is not a usual part of a music video and isn’t seen any where else. Gondry’s vision for this video comes through as there are many parts of the video where things fall apart changing scene or at the end changing to a performance after ripping off their costumes and props falling apart.

Little X - Auter Theory

Little X – Biography and music video analysis

Julien Christian Lutz (born 1975), better known as Little X, X or Director X, is a Canadian music video director. He also has his own clothing line X Fit. He was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, and is of Trinidadian and Swiss descent.

Julien Christian Lutz attended both Mayfield Secondary School and North Park Secondary School. A protégé of Hype Williams, X has been noted for his high-budget, visually distinctive music videos for popular music singles, including videos for R.Kelly, Uhser, Kanye West, Jay-z , Korn, Nelly Furtado, Sean Paul and The Wanted. He is currently represented by DNA - David Naylor and Associates, Hollywood, CA.

One of his trademarks is tweaking the letterbox format; instead of simply using black bars on the top and bottom of the frame to frame the image, many videos by X feature the bars opening vertically to reveal the video, and closing vertically at the end.

These were the Little X songs that we looked at:

Nicki minaj – your love

The wanted – glad you came

David guetta ft Estelle – one love

Korn – coming undone

All of the music videos that were looked at, apart from the korn one, included Little X’s letterbox finish. Because this is considered one of his trademarks you would expect this to be in the majority of his videos. Because the korn video is older, it could be suggested that he hadn’t implemented the trademark finish until later on in his career. Another of Little X’s themes is to make high budget, visually distinctive music videos. This is clear in all the videos that were viewed because of things like the location and the scale of the videos. The songs that we looked at spanned a variety of genres, and this is evident in the colours that were used. In the first three, because the genre is pop, there was a lot of bright colours mixing together but in the final videos, the colours were more monotonous, with the background colours staying the same for long periods before changing. Also, because of the differences in genre, the length of the shots were a lot faster in the first three, with the final video sticking to the artists throughout the video. With the first three, there is a lot of different scenarios going on at the same time, to reflect the tempo and the feel of the music. The songs that Little X has done all have reference to the song title. In the first video, the women are seen to be fighting over the love of the male character, and the song is called Your Love. In Glad You Came, the artists are in a party and signing to girls to express that they are glad they came. The wanted song is also the only one that we looked at that featured Little X’s name on the actual video.

Heavy Metal Hope - Magazine Advert Evaluation - Preparatory Task

Our magazine advert successfully conveyed the heavy metal genre because it contains a picture of our artist with her guitar, which is a stereotypical heavy metal instrument. We choose black and red as our main colours as they are conventional colours of heavy metal and they go together. We think we could of used a better picture but because of time constraints we had to rapidly decide on a picture.  The positives of our photo are that the composition and posing of our model is good but the lighting is not as good as it makes Hope’s face is purple. The electric guitar has been a key element of heavy metal and by featuring it in our magazine ad with it standing out from all the dark colours. We included some conventions of magazine ads but we left it quite empty so the image was more striking but still had the information needed.

Heavy Metal Hope - Magazine Advert - Preparatory task

Heavy metal hope

We are planning a photo shoot based around heavy metal, for a magazine advert.

We made a mood board to serve as inspiration as to what we will use in the photo shoot.

We chose to include a guitar on our magazine advert because that is a stereotypical instrument with heavy metal bands. 

We are going to get Hope to do the rock hands gesture because that is a prominent characteristic in the heavy metal genre.

We plan to make use of the college facilities, the drama studio and the dance studio, to give the shoot a more professional feel.

In the drama studio, we will use the studio lights to give off different feels using different tints and light positions.

We used floor lights to portray a position of power.

The props we plan to use are a guitar and an amp because they are stereotypical of the heavy metal genre.

Hope’s costume will be mainly dark because that is generally associated with that genre.

Her costume is voyeuristic of the female body, with a black dress with studs and boots with zips on them.

The makeup that Hope will be wearing will be dramatic and emphasizing the rock chick look.

On the magazine ad, we plan to use the slogan ‘HEAVY METAL HOPE’ because we are doing heavy metal and Hope is in the pictures. It also has added meaning if you look at it from a different perspective with heavy metal music being stereotypically depressing and ‘hope’ contradicting this stereotype.

On the magazine advert, we will include the title of the album and the artist, the production company/record label, the photo that we took, the release date of the album and price, and any reviews that we want to include on the advert. We will meet the demands of the record label by including lots of close ups of Hope.

Auteur Theory

Auteur Theory

Auteur Theory holds that a director’s film reflects the director’s personal creative vision, as if they are the primary “auteur” (French word for author). In some cases, since the production of the film is part of an industrial process, the author’s creative voice is distinct enough to be seen through all kinds of studio interference and through the collective process. 

This theory can be applied to music videos because certain aspects of the auteur’s life experiences, and the kinds of creative visions they will have as a result of those experiences, can be used to form motifs and other creative elements in music videos that not only appeal to a specific audience, but are also unique because they are personal to the director in the sense that no other director will have the exact same creative visions as another.

Music Video Proposal Slide Show Presentation

Music Video Proposal

View more presentations from Hope Chasity Falla.

Our Pitch

 For our music video we plan to use The Saturdays' Had it with today, and have the beginning of the music video in a car, with people singing along to the track played on the radio, which then transitions to different, more typically attractive, people singing and dancing in a country park which would be interspersed with clips from the same people dancing on a stage.

For our magazine ad we will use the performers in a glamorous group shot we will take the photo in the drama studio as it has many lights that we can use as well as props. We have chosen to use a group shot as it is a common advert convention for girl bands. the information we will include on our ad is the title of both the album and the artist, the website for our artist, the release date for our album and some other information.

The ideas we've had for our digipak are to have another group shot on the front cover to illustrate our artists, then on the back we will have many different shots of our group on the back cover as well as the special features listing.

All of products will have a theme of a concert/ stage to make sure they will be associated with each other. The music video will contain at least one costume change.

The genre we are using for our video is pop which means that we need to have a kind of dance routine, have lots of close-ups of the artist. To meet goodwin's theory, we will have lots of close-ups which will fulfill the record labels requirements, the dance routine and the girl group come under the genre conventions. To make the visuals match the audio we will change the cut length and speed to match the song speed, we will have lots of close-ups and various solo shots of the girls to fulfil the notion of looking. The way our video will start will be very similar to the opening of wayne's world when they're in the car singing bohemian rhapsody.



After completing our project, we decided to look back at our pitch and see what had changed, most of our pitch wasn't realised in our music video project, as the only thing that has stayed consistent throughout our project was the idea for the special features listing and the way our video was edited.

Influential music videos

Missing You


We will take certain ideas and elements from this video for example to solo shots of each of the girls in a serene and quiet setting, we will also film on a sunny day and try to make things white and bright as well. We will also have a group dance routine which will be performed in a different setting to the rest of the video which is similar to this video.

All Fired Up


We will take ideas from this video for the main dance routine which will be in the drama studio for examples of how it is filmed and examples of lighting etc. The costumes are dark and the lighting  and setting are bright which provides a good amount of contrast.

We have decided to take inspiration from The Saturday's previous work. We will be including lots of close ups of the performers to meet the needs of the record label as well as lots of group shots to show them all singing together.

the saturdays had it with today lyrics

Woke up this morning, feeling bad
Almost forgot what day I had
And there was something not quite right
Cos' everything was so against me I had no power to fight
And I was all alone, ohhh

I've had it with today
Wish it were yesterday
I can't wait for tomorrow
It's just one of those days
When nothing goes my way
At least I know it will past and elaspe

I've fallen sick and cannot smile
I'm hardening up inside (ooohhh)
Even the weather shows my pain (shows my pain)
If life were like this constantly I think I'd surely go insane
The pitch feeds my pain
To my veins, ohhh

I've had it with today
Wish it were yesterday
I can't wait for tomorrow
It's just one of those days
When nothing goes my way
At least I know it will past and elaspe

Oohh
If there were no lows, there'd be no highs
I'm glad now I've realised this low can only go
Higher and higher...

I've had it with today
Ohh-ohh, I've had it
It's just one of those days
Just one of those days, ohh-ohhh
I wish it were tomorrow

I've had it with today
Wish it were yesterday
I can't wait for tomorrow
It's just one of those days
When nothing goes my way
At least I know it will past and elaspe

Had it with today, had it with today
Oh-oh-whoa-oh-yeah-yeah
Just-just want to go

Had it with today, had it with today
Oh-oh-whoa-oh