And . . . that’s a wrap.

We’re finished! Finally, I can get that damn song out of my head!

But seriously, it’s a huge relief to be done and I’m really proud of what we’ve created. Which of course isn’t to say that it’s perfect, because it’s not, but I’m happy with it all the same.

It is worth looking at the aspects that didn’t work, however, as that’s part of the learning experience. So I’ll start my reflection by looking at some elements that I feel didn’t work, and then moving on to the lighter side of what did.

Downside no. 1: the storyline.

Ok, ok, ok. Rohan was right. I’ve said it and I’m not going to say it again! While the narrative of the girls chasing Elvis is definitely clear, and I think suits the tone of the song, the attempt to reference Disney characters is not as obvious. While I don’t actually think this hinders the audience’s enjoyment of the story, it is an element that we failed to create accurately. I think we were on the right track with trying to create a fun link between the different characters, but Rohan’s suggestion that they needed to be larger-than-life was right, as we underestimated how difficult it would be to establish characters in such a short space of time.

Downside no. 2: the colour grade (or lack thereof).

Right from our first conception of what our music video would look like we decided that a light tone could be created by a warm, almost retro-style colour grade. We stuck with this goal right until the end, and this week Jenny put the finishing touches on a bright grade to apply to various different scenes. Unfortunately, when taking a step back and watching the whole video from start to finish, it was clear that the grade (although looking very nice in small doses) was far too high on saturation, creating an aesthetically unappealing cartoonish effect. We had punched up the greens where, given the footage was so green already, we really should have focused on the yellow for that retro look. By the time we made the discovery it was unfortunately too late to create another grade so we went with our original footage, which was fortunately very pretty anyway.

Upside no. 1: the cinematography.

Which brings me to Jordan’s marvellous cinematography. While I had originally suggested the Royal Botanic Gardens as a location because I believe it is impossible for them to look ugly on film, Jordan’s shots really made them sing. His composition but I think particularly his use of the natural light gave us aesthetically pleasing shots that suited our bright, clean tone. The footage was particularly helpful in that it supported the slightly weaker narrative in keeping the audience engaged through its aesthetic appeal.

Upside no. 2: The editing

I don’t think I’m tooting my own horn here by saying I think the editing was quite successful, as it was truly a team effort with everyone pitching in and a lot of credit too going to Rohan for his feedback and advice at every stage of the editing process. As I mentioned above, conveying this narrative in such a short space of time proved much harder than we thought; it’s a bit ironic really because it’s a short time in which to tell a narrative but a long time to keep an audience engaged for with no dialogue. I feel that we were able to edit the video in such a way that it is engaging, visually interesting and also fulfils its obligations as a music video in that there is a focus on the artist, Abby, both as the main character of the story and as the singer of the music. When we showed Abby our fine cut she was overjoyed, and after all I think that is the most important thing as the video should ultimately be a tool for her to market her song and her brand as an artist.

Wow, have twelve weeks really gone that fast? No, they haven’t, it was a synthesised six week course. But still, it doesn’t seem like all that long ago that I rocked up to day one of the Belgian Egg Hunt (aka. Music Video 101, aka. Rohan’s crazy fun-times, aka. ‘It’s summer school!’) knowing nothing about music video. And now I know everything! Jokes, jokes, I’m not even close. But I have learnt a lot, and while I’ll do my final reflection on our music video at the end of the week, for the moment I’ll do a rundown on the most important things I’ve learnt over this summer semester:

1. The story of Ian Curtis and Joy Division is really sad, but makes for a really good film
2. Mishearing lyrics can lead to awesome egg-themed videos
3. Using small-budget items such as lego doesn’t mean your video has to suck
4. In the case of Bjork + robot love, two wrongs do make a right
5. Miley Cyrus may in fact be a feminist, but black women still can’t catch a break in the music video industry
6. Unless they’re Beyonce
7. Mumford and Sons do a great self-parody
8. Brunswick is a good setting for a music video
9. Pitching a music video concept is hard
10. “It’s summer school” is a valid excuse for anything
11. Colour grade = fix for everything
12. Shooting in slow motion is very popular, but also hard
13. Editing a music video is also hard
14. But rewarding J

We’re nearly finished with our music video, and yet it dawned on me the other day that I haven’t done my set report yet!

To be honest, the day didn’t get off to a great start. The night before we discovered that rain was predicted for the next morning, and so the shoot had to be pushed back to later in the day. We also had a bit of difficulty getting to the location: some of our actors couldn’t find any parking so we were almost two hours late from the get-go.

We were under the pump, but we pulled together. Jordan was our cinematographer, and he had looked at the photos of the Gardens we’d taken the week before and organised a shot list. He knew exactly where he wanted to film each scene, so we set up a base camp in one area and got started.

We went in reverse order, so we started with the group scenes and went backwards. Though we had taken a while to get started, Jordan’s organisation meant that we could move along at a good pace. The actors wore their own costumes, aside from a wig that we had bought, some ‘Elvis hair’ cleverly styled by Jenny and the balloons, also brought by Jenny.

As we moved along with the scenes, we reduced our number of actors so the job got easier as the day progressed. Blair had provided a speaker so we were able to sync certain scenes to the audio of the track as necessary.

We filmed at various different locations in the Gardens, and it proved to be a very workable location. The weather held out, with the sky just the right mix of sun and cloud and the rain forecast for later in the evening holding off. We also had no trouble with bystanders; although the mild, sunny day had brought a lot of visitors to the gardens, our locations were such that this wasn’t an issue (either they weren’t in shot, or were so far in the background that it didn’t make a difference).

A few times in the day we changed our ‘unit base’, but mostly we were able to just take the equipment and actors we needed to each location to save time and effort. One of the great advantages of the Gardens is that there are such varied locations in such a small space, meaning we could get an aesthetically diverse range of shots without having to move too much.

Although we’d had to rely on volunteering friends for our actors, we had in most cases picked people specifically who had experience on camera so while they were perhaps not Oscar-worthy performances, they were at least manageable.

Once we had filmed all of the narrative shots we took some time to film Abby singing along to the track. We picked a green, grassy location that would look nice on the Canon DSLR lens and got Abby to sing the song through. Unfortunately, as we were running short on time we could only do it through once. However, considering how late we had started we were pleased to have gotten through all the necessary narrative shots.

Overall, although we had a few mishaps to start off with, the day ran relatively smoothly and we got a range of useable footage to work with in the edit.

Below are some pictures we took while horsing around. It’s amazing how with the right camera and a pretty location even silly shots look wonderful!

If you’ve been reading my blogs for a while now you’ll have learnt that I can’t go more than three weeks without making a Simpsons reference, so here it is.

Of course, it is Grammys season, with the music industry’s night of nights set for 8pm Monday 15th of February. Unless you’ve got Foxtel I don’t think you’ll be able to watch it in Australia, but let’s be honest who wants to watch the whole thing through when you can read up on the highlights the next day? (I’m just waiting for the Buzzfeed article “194 thoughts we had while watching the Grammys”.)

Of course, as usual there’s an award for outstanding music video, and I was surprised that of the five nominees I’d only seen one. I’m pleased with this, because it means that the awards aren’t just pandering to the most popular artists but are actually looking for videos with artistic merit.

The only video of the five I recognised was Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood, which anyone who knows me will tell you I have serious issues with (Yay! Women fulfilling traditional action hero roles . . . in skimpy clothes, high heels and full make-up . . .). So I’m hoping it won’t win, but the other four all look really interesting and deserving of their nominations, so I think it’ll be a tight contest. Check out the nominees here.

I’ll be interested to see the result – and what Kanye West has to say about it.

Now that our own music video is nearly done, it’s time for us to think about how we want to start marketing it. Of course, how Abby wants to do her own marketing is up to her but obviously we want to get our work out there and seen as well.

In the age of online media, it would seem that all you have to do is upload something to YouTube and everyone can see it, but unfortunately it’s not actually that simple. A case in point from the last week is that of OK Go and their latest music video Upside Down and Inside Out.

You might remember OK Go from their famous Here it Goes Again Video – I mentioned it in one of my posts a few weeks ago. It was one of the first ever viral videos; a one-take of the band dancing across five active treadmills. It was first uploaded to YouTube just after the site’s inception in 2005.

Since then, OK Go have become famous for their one-take videos, and their latest takes it to new heights: collaborating with Russia’s S7 Airlines the group performed a one-take routine in a zero gravity aeroplane.

Now that in itself is worth writing about, but the reason I’m interested in this video, particularly in the wake of us distributing our video, is to do with the way it was marketed.

Despite the fact that many would say OK Go owe their fame to YouTube, the group abandoned the platform and decided to upload this video only to Facebook. In fact, when S7 Airlines uploaded the video to their YouTube account, the band’s management requested that it be taken down. This is why I can’t show you the video – I can’t embed a Facebook video without being on Facebook myself (but you can see it here).

I think it’s an interesting move. Supposedly the band are going to take the video down after 48 hours, so I can only assume their plan is to create hype and buzz to get more people interested. However, some fans have been disappointed by the decision, and personally I think putting your fans offside is one of the worst things you can do.

Nonetheless, it gives you something to think about. I don’t think we’d be able to go down the ‘create 48 hours of worldwide hype’ road, but looking at different media platforms and their different audiences is an important part of marketing our own music video.

Forgive me for a couple of quick posts this week – I’m moving out of home and when you’ve only got your own two hands and a Ford Fiesta to do it with it’s a bit of a process!

During Tuesday’s class the Egg Hunt turned its attention to one of the world’s most watched media events – the ‘Superbowl’, America’s NFL grand final that attracted one billion viewers worldwide and is famous for charging up to one million dollars for a thirty second ad spot.

With that in mind, it’s not hard to see why Beyonce chose it as the time to drop her new track, Formation. This is where we came in: at around the same time, she released the associated video and it’s a doozy.

In recent years, Beyonce has become ever more political, using her powerful influence to great effect. She’s a proud feminist, and sang at the inauguration of America’s first black president Barack Obama. And yet this new video is probably as strong a statement as Queen Bey has ever made.

It’s fiercely and in no uncertain terms a black pride song, with Beyonce singing about her heritage, typical African American physical traits, and her own success (“I might just be a black Bill Gates in the making”). The video backs up these messages, with powerful imagery of a drowned New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina, African-Americans presented as colonialists in a vintage setting, and a young black boy dancing in front of a row of armed, white policemen.

It’s a mesmerising video to watch and while there has been a backlash against the song, with some claiming Beyonce was disrespectful towards American police, I’m glad she’s taking the time to use her influence to make a strong statement and stand up for minority groups.

Plus, it’s a dead catchy song.

Once upon a time, TV was considered the inferior version of film – less classy, less cultured, and altogether just not as good. Nowadays, that perception has changed, and we saw the tide of good quality TV turning when it became acceptable for legitimate movie stars to make the move to the small screen. It seems that the same phenomenon could be happening to music video, with the last ten or twenty years giving us a few examples of some genuine stars appearing in clips. And yes, I’m aware my penchant for listicles is turning this blog into a Buzzfeed for music video but I’m OK with that!

1. Fatboy Slim’s Weapon of Choice starring Christopher Walken

Christopher Walken is one of the most highly-regarded actors of our time, making it all the more hilarious to see him prancing about a hotel lobby. This video has gone down in history as one of the greatest cameos of all time and it still stands up today.

2. Ed Sheeran’s Lego House starring Rupert Grint

Proving once and for all that all gingers look alike, this creepy-but-kinda-sweet video from Ed Sheeran features fellow redhead Rupert Grint as a Sheeran fan who uses his physical similarity to the star to enhance his fanboy experience. Grint does an excellent job of toeing the fine line between humour and sweetness in this clip, appealing not just to his extensive Harry Potter fanbase but to your regular Ed Sheeran aficionado.

3. Mumford & Sons’ Hopeless Wanderer starring Ed Helms, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte

This brilliant music video was brought to my attention by classmate Ella, who did her project brief two presentation on it. Having already set a precedent for star cameos with their previous video Lover of the Light, which featured British heartthrob Idris Elba, Mumford & Sons here create the ultimate self-parody by casting four well-known funnymen as themselves. The video lovingly mocks Mumford & Sons’ American vintage aesthetic and slowly builds to a ridiculous climax of instrument-bashing and intense bromance.

4. Weird Al’s Tacky starring Jack Black, Eric Stonestreet, Kristen Schaal, Margaret Cho, and Aisha Tyler

It’s a testament to Weird Al’s comic genius that when he puts out the call other comedians flock to get involved in his work. His brilliant parody of Pharrell Williams’ Happy stars a slew of recognisable comedians all doing their best to dance like fools and be as ‘tacky’ as possible. In the realm of Hopeless Wanderer, the comedic ensemble works fantastically to make a funny idea even funnier in practice.

5. Sia’s Elastic Heart starring Maddie Zeigler and Shia Labeouf

Let’s be honest: if a Sia video wasn’t completely out there we’d be disappointed. Having said that, this video certainly caused its fair share of controversy. Sia had already established a working relationship with pint-sized performer and Dance Moms star Maddie Zeigler, but the addition of eccentric actor Shia Lebeouf raised eyebrows as many found the video somewhat predatory and inappropriate. Personally, I think that’s reading too much into what is essentially a well-choreographed dance routine between an adult and a child, but I can understand why the video’s bleak tone might put people off.

Honourable mention: Carly Rae Jepsen’s I Really Like You starring Tom Hanks

You’ve got to hand it to Hanks for making a right fool of himself in this video. The video is just as annoying as the song but somehow it just works and I do get a few laughs out of it.

We’ve talked a lot about rhythm in this course, because obviously a hugely important part of music video is being able to visually represent the beat of a song. Often, this is done through rapid editing. This makes it all the more astonishing when we see a one-take music video. Notoriously hard to film, the one-take can nonetheless produce a stunning effect.

I was inspired to write this post after re-watching the hugely popular video clip for the Black Keys’ Lonely Boy.

Internet legend says this music video was planned out as something entirely different with a regular budget and editing in mind, but when the director saw this extra dancing behind the scenes, he decided it would be perfect for the video. This is perhaps one of the most well-known one-take music videos, but of course there are some other favourites:

1. Taylor Swift’s We are Never Ever Getting Back Together

I’m guessing from the prop and costume changes that there’s a little bit of cheating going on here, but I think Taytay (TayTay? Tay-tay?) can be forgiven. The elaborate set and crazy extras give the whole video a playful theme that suits the way Swift kind of mocks herself in the song itself.

2. Lorde’s Tennis Court

Much like the Lonely Boy video, this one-take works because the central character it focuses on is so engaging. Where the Black Keys’ dancing man was comical and endearing, Lorde brings an intensely raw and emotional performance to this video that’s so mesmerising it doesn’t even matter that she’s singing very few of the words. This is aided by clever lighting and cinematography but also the beautiful and haunting costuming of Lorde from her winding braid to her mulberry lipstick.

3. The Spice Girls’ Wannabe

This for me would have to be an example of where one-take has really failed. I mean, I’m not the biggest Spice Girls fan to start off with but I really feel like this video has nothing going for it but the fact that it is a one-take (which might not even be the case if you believe some internet sources claiming it’s actually clever editing). The video simply shows the girls running around a hotel room, which without any edits to me gets boring very quickly, and there are some issues regarding the syncing of the dancing and singing to the track (Mel B, I’m looking at you).

4. OK Go’s Here it Goes Again

Probably the most famous one-take music video of all time, this video deserves all the kudos it gets. The skill in choreographing this and then the rehearsal required to get it right in one go must have been incredible and it’s really fun to watch. The video’s also iconic not just because of its one-take nature but because of its place as one of the world’s earliest viral sensations. Although the video now on YouTube was uploaded in 2009, it was originally posted in 2005, at the very dawn of shareable online video.

PS. Cheers to this Mental Floss article by Rudie Obias for pointing out some of these videos.

Hehe I couldn’t resist.

This week, famous Russian activist artists Pussy Riot released their latest music video. Named Chaika after Russia’s prosecutor general, the song takes aim at corruption in the country’s government. While any video clip attached to this song would convey the strong message of the lyrics, the imagery of Pussy Riot’s video emphasises these themes through symbols such as the band’s police costumes and the appearance of a golden loaf, an icon during Soviet times of grandeur and gratuitous wealth.

Pussy Riot are famous for using the music and music video mediums to convey political messages, but they aren’t the first or only artists to do so. Below are a few examples of famous music videos that convey political messages.

2. Give Peace a Chance by John Lennon

John Lennon was famous for his songs that carried messages of peace and harmony, and Give Peace a Chance is a fine example. This accompanying video was released in 1969 and is interesting in that it was produced in a time when mainstream music videos tended to be solely shots of the artists performing in a studio setting. So the choice to film Lennon’s performance in a much more informal environment and intercut it with footage of his and Yoko Ono’s famous bed-in reinforces the song’s anti-authoritarian sentiment and cry for global brotherhood.

2. By the Time I get to Arizona by Public Enemy

Public Enemy’s most famous political song is Fight the Power but for a look at their use of music video to be political it’s more interesting to look at this clip for By the Time I get to Arizona. The retro costumes, picketing and use of black and white make clear allusions to the American Civil Rights movement, which is linked to the present day (or at least the era of the song itself, circa 1991) through the shots of the artists themselves.

3. Same Love by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

This song is pretty explicit in its message – that same-sex relationships are as real and worthy of respect as any other – but the video builds a really beautiful narrative to support the song’s sweet and humble tone. The song has more of a moral message than a political one, but if you were in any doubt regarding the video’s purpose you need only skip to the closing credits which read: ‘Same Love – SUPPORT MARRIAGE EQUALITY, VOTE YES ON REF 74’

4. Dear Mr President by Pink

There’s not really a more explicitly political song I can think of than Pink’s Dear Mr President, addressed directly to George Bush Jr who appears at several points in the video. While the official video on Pink’s Vevo for this song is actually a recording of a live performance, we see projected images in the background of Bush, his family, and many representations of the issues that Pink discusses in the song.

I’m on holidays this week – woohoo! I know, it’s only just gone Christmas but my friends and I were determined to keep up our tradition of an annual getaway and it seemed like this was the only time we were all free.

We’re going down to Lakes Entrance, to the same house we’ve stayed in before, and I’m looking forward to a week of nothing but friends, laughs and long, lazy sleep-ins.

Unfortunately for us though, it looks like the weather’s not quite going to warm up enough for us to make the most of the beautiful beaches down Gippsland way. Oh I’m sure I’ll take my bathers and we’ll get down there eventually, but at the moment it’s looking a little too chilly for comfort.

It made me think though – following on from my theme last week of locations, the beach is a pretty popular setting not just in music video but on screen more generally. Which makes sense – it’s pretty, it’s natural, it’s powerful, it can convey so many meanings. So I thought I’d have a look at a few very different uses of the seaside in music video.

1. California Girls by The Beach Boys

I have to say, when I put California Girls into YouTube I was looking for a rather different song, but when I saw this I knew I had to include it. Rohan always jokes that he’s an old man because he listens to Neil Diamond; well I must be ancient at heart because I do have a real soft spot for The Beach Boys’ cheesy, upbeat, clean-as-a-whistle 60s sound. I realised I haven’t spoken too much about older music videos so far, and while this is mostly a fan compilation it does have some brilliant studio footage in the middle of The Beach Boys singing at, well, the beach (or a decent imitation of it). This set is a classic example of how the beach often features in music video – the ultimate holiday setting for good times, summer, friends and family.

2. Yellow by Coldplay

From the happy to the, well . . .  I mean it’s not sad but it’s Coldplay so it’s not happy is it? Here, we see the beach less as a representation of joy and excitement but instead as a symbol of great emotional power. The darkness of the video along with the stark desolation of the beach as Chris Martin walks down it alone combines the natural beauty of the sea with a sense of awe and calmness that supports the song’s mellow but heartfelt tone.

3. Drunk in Love by Beyonce

It was only in my last post that I was talking about this video, and I think I’ve even mentioned it before then, but hey, what kind of music-related course would this be if Queen Bey didn’t show up a couple of times? If the first video shows the beach as the scene of good times and the second uses it to symbolise emotional power, I think I might place this video somewhere in the middle. This song is very heady – it kind of seems drunk itself, and here the beach both represents the excitement and temptation of which Bey sings and the almost overwrought tone of the song.