Music videos in the 21st century have evolved throughout the years, music videos will now contain a narrative to get the story line across to their audience which keeps the audience interested. Music videos nowadays use props and locations to emphasise their narrative to the audience which also makes them more aware of their opinions and views.
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Music videos started broadcasting to television in the early 1980s, where it was mainly black and white and mainly showed them as a whole group with a few close ups and a everyday locations. They are also performance based music videos which shows the artist/band performing on a stage. Music videos from these times showed the artist as a whole and didn't have a narrative to the music videos. Music videos then evolved to being televised on channels like MTV, whereas in the 21st century music videos can be accessed instantly on platforms such as YouTube, which gains more viewers of the song.
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From the feedback that I received from peers, the ideal length of a music video is 2-3 mins or that 6+ mins was also the ideal length for a music video. After gathering this information we have decided to make the length of my music video between 2-3 mins as I feel that it's the ideal length which others also agreed to as well.
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I asked peers 'how would you define a music video?' I asked this question to see people's reactions and what they think a music video consists off. All the responses were varied from people saying it's 'a song which has music in the background to promote it, 'like a short film but music is used to show narrative', and that it's a 'video that has either a performance, a story or both for the song. In my opinion a music video is a short film which includes a song and visuals to promote the artist and song itself.
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I also asked peers 'what music video stands out or they find memorable?' the answers received were varied but what I gathered from their responses is that what makes most of these music videos is that they get their narrative across well. For example in 'I'm not racist' their is a powerful message that is being portrayed through the music video which makes it stand out and causes people to remember that specific music video amongst others.
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The feedback received from peers many people said that good visuals, strong narrative, good camerawork and an interesting story makes a music video good. After gathering this information I will make sure that I use good camera angles that shows the emotion of the character to allow the audience to feel that emotion. I think that by having a 'good narrative' really helps your entire music video as that's the thing that you are trying to get across to your audience.
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Adele wears casual cloths but wears black to add to the concept of the music video, it gives the effects on the audience that she is feeling down which is shown through her wearing black in the music video. Adele also wears minimal makeup in the music video to add to the fact that she's upset which creates a atmosphere for the song which is given off to the audience. It also shows Adele looking natural like an everyday look which shows her in her everyday life. They're no props used in the music video as all the attention is focussed towards the artist herself.
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Mise-en-scene: |
The lighting of the music video is quite dark which creates a sad and depressing look on the audience as in most shots Adele's face is covered to create a look of sadness. Adele is also looking down in most of the shots which portrays her as innocent and scared. In various shots half of Adele's face is covered by shadows which could mean that she only wishes to portray half her story and keep the other half to herself for personal reasons.
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This music video mainly focusses on Adele facial expressions which help the audience understand more about the narrative of the song. The music video contains a lot of close ups of Adele's face which shows the audience how she is feeling. This music video also uses a lot of extreme close up shots of Adele's face which shows the audience the emotion of the artist which causes them to also feel this emotion.
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The lighting of this music video uses various colours such as pink and blue as a background colour to give the video an interesting look which also make the video stand out amongst other music videos. The colours used also create a happy theme which also gets the audience in a happy mood. Ariana's face is shown in all the shots which shows the emotion she is feeling. There is one shot which creates shadows on the background and Ariana's face which creates a scary look on her which creates an effect on the audience which may change their views on what is going to happen next.
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They're various camera angles used in this music video. Close-ups and extreme close-ups are used to show the artist facial expressions in great detail to show the emotion of how the artist is feeling. Long shots are typically used to show the artist in a wide shot which also gets the location and surroundings in the shot as well. High angle shots are used many times in the music video to make the artist seem small and shows Ariana outside the house with a group of people dancing and enjoying themselves. A dutch angle is used at the start of the music video which shows an angle of a car on it's side to create creativity which keeps the audience engaged.
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This video has given me more insight as to the reasons why people resort to self harming. It also talks about when was the last time these individuals self harmed, for some it was 4 months ago but for others it was 1 day ago. When people self harm 'it tones down there minds', 'it felt like they were sedated', but this only lasts for 5-10 mins which is why they self harm again and again which then makes self harming addictive. One of the girls stories was that they were sexual molested by a family member and they last time she cut her arm she cut into a vein on her wrist leaving her hand semi paralysed and as it bled so much she thought she was going to die, she said 'it was the deepest cut I have done'. Another story of one of the girls was that her mother was into meth and would bring round boyfriends which would sexually abuse her and her brother which caused her to be so traumatic that she resorted to self harming. One of her friends reported her to the school council to get her help, she hated them for a long time but now she appreciates them for caring enough to get her help. Another girl stopped self harming when her little sister saw her scars on her arm which stuck with her and caused her to stop self harming and by going to a recovery group helped her a lot in the process. Also going to therapy helped by talking to someone about how they feel. They also feel that having their scars limits them to wearing clothes like bathing suits as people will stare, one of the girls also has children and she feels that when her children see her scars and will think differently of her and she doesn't want them to be disappointed with her.
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This video gave me more insight and detail of why individuals self harm and how she got help and what she continues to do to help stop her from self harming in the future. She first started self harm after having a disagreement with her mums boyfriend who was into drugs and alcohol, he hit her in the mouth causing her to bleed, after going to her mum to tell her what had happened her mum said 'you probably did something to deserve it' which her mum didn't know the severity of what she said to her in at that moment which lead to this girl cutting herself and thinking to herself that 'it gave her cut the perfect amount of depth' but wasn't deep enough that it would put her in the hospital. She would keep a bunch of sewing needles so that when she felt the urge to 'punish herself' as she referred to it she could. She would say what each cut meant as she did them, as she felt like she deserved all the pain that came to her. She self harmed for 5 years, after attending therapy where she was diagnosed with anxiety disorder and depression she stopped self harming after this. What also helped her was having a friend group that cared for her and helped her to stop. She got a semi colon tattoo to remind her that theres more to life then suffering, and that she wasn't born to suffer.
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This video has given me more knowledge of how people started off with becoming depressed and how it lead to suicidal thoughts and self harm. This girl felt deep sadness within herself and felt very insecure and self conscious, she was bullied as well which lead to her having suicidal thoughts. She was the new girl in school and felt that it was hard to make new friends which is when she was bullied online, she wore a smile to hide all her feelings from everyone. She then attempted suicide and realised she had depression, anxiety and an eating disorder which is when she started to self harm, she resorted to self harming to ease the pain away
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From this video I have learnt how to change the colour of clips to create a certain effect to make the audience feel a certain way. I'm going to use this effect to edit clips to make them look really dark to create the sense of sadness and depression. I will practise this effect by editing a clip and changing the saturation, contrast and brightness to black and white also changing the RGB curves which will also create the sense of sadness. I think that this a good technique to use as it can change the emotion of any clip to create an effect on the audience. This reinforces colour into the music video to show emotion which is a big part of my music video as it allows the audience to understand the emotion of the characters.
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From this video I have learnt how to create fake cuts on the skin using makeup and fake blood. I will use what I have learnt by including a close up of the main character cutting herself various times at school and at home, I will also show close ups of the cuts. This technique helps to show the audience how depressed and sad the character is and how she ends up relying on cutting herself to make her feel better.
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