Key generic features of music videos

Here's me taking you through the key generic features of a music video and how I have incorporated them into my own music video. Enjoy.

Would Maffasoli and Hebdige agree?

After adressing some key questions towards both Maffesoli and Hebdige, we drew up the conclusion that both agree on the fact that recent times has seen the fragmentation of cultures into various subcultures with a proliferation of subcultures taking place also. Both also agree and adapt theory's based around the post-modern concept of identity.

On the other hand, there is one important aspect of these theorys that both strongly disagree on. Maffesoli believes that the meaning behind each subculture has been lost during the fragmentation and bricolage. Hebdige on the other hand, believes that the meaning remains and each subculture and the aspects of them, remain a way of identifying who you are and who you are not.

Dick Hebdige

Dick Hebdige is best known for his influential book in subcultural studies, The Meaning of Style, published in 1979. His views are somewhat similar to those of Michel Maffesoli although the two also have contradicting beliefs. Hebdige's four main points can be seen below in the image.

Hebdige believed that fashion and music choice determined the identity of youth. Also that the meaning behind this particular subculture remained. The subculture you belong to is a key way of determining who you are and who you are not.

Je m'appelle Michel Maffasoli

Michel Maffasoli is a french sociologist of Italian origin. He developed a theory of current cultures and focused mainly on the disintegration of of mass culture and the meaning behind them.

His ideas suggest that there has been a bricolage - a fragmentation of mass culture into a proliferation of various subcultures - and each subculture has adopted a 'pick 'n' mix' approach, adopting different aspects of culture from both historic mass cultures and other subcultures of today. For example, the subculture known as 'emo' could be seen to have taken fashion aspects of both the gothic and indie subcultures. This perhaps shows how culture of today displays how the style remains but the meaning behind that style has been lost.

See below the sheet we were given in class which addressed some of Maffesoli's key points.

Shooting schedule

Wednesday 3rd October - Cromer, beach (cancelled)
I was going to use this date to take some practise shots and location shots to aid my planning. Unfortunately my camera man, Will Spalding, was unable to make this date and therefore we had to postpone.

Friday 5th October - Cromer, beach
On this day I was originally going to start my shoot and get the bulk of my raw footage with the shots of my character Cameron on the beach. However, because of the postponement of my last shoot date, I had to push everything back and so I took some photos of my location on this day instead. By the time I arrived at the beach, the sun had already began to set and so I didnt have enough time to achieve the shots that I would have perhaps liked to; however I still feel I took valuable photos that successfuly show the location in which I will be filming and some ideas of shots I may use.

Friday 12th October - Cromer, beach
On this day I began my shoot. I had my full cast with me which was very helpful as it gave me a chance to shoot all shots that I may need. However, again the light was against us and as the dark drew closer I focused on every shot that I needed with the girls as their availability for shoot dates is more restricted. By the end of the shoot I had successfuly shot all clips I needed of the girls on the beach.

Friday 19th October - Cromer, beach (cancelled)
The weather was frustratingly against us on this day. I had planned to shoot the remainder of my video in which the beach was the location, but rain was forecast and I felt it would be pointless for me to go all the way out to cromer because of the fact that we had already shot a lot of the video in good weather and so a confusing contrast would have been present had we done this. This has demonstrated to me, the impact of the weather conditions on film making. Films, music videos etc are shot on location to suit the style of the content and this often means for the production team, choosing a location abroad or somewhere more suitable.

Friday 19th October - Cringleford, house
Because of the change of plan due to the weather, I used this day to shoot some of the flashback scenes with the characters Cameron and Ellie. The dilemma that was presented here, I feel represents real life scenarios, and I feel I showed good initiative to work around this problem and continue to work on something productive.

Monday 22nd October - Cromer, beach/pier
On this day I shot the remainder of my video and so all my raw footage is complete. I am happy how my shooting went despite the speedbumps that occured along the way and I feel that I managed my time efficiently considering the entire shoot was complete in just under three weeks with only approximately four hours of actual shooting time.

Location shots

I took several photos of the area in which I will be shooting my music video. Most are of Cromer beach which will be where the majority of my video is set.

This shot is of the entrance to Cromer pier as well as the walkway that  leads to it. I may decide to use this area for some of my walkway shots with Cameron along with the pier itself featuring in the opening location shots. This location shot is among those of the most importance in my music video as I feel it necessary for my audience to see where it was that the music video was shot. Cromer and it's pier has played a hugely significant role in my video and I intend to show this as much as possible.

These birds-eye angle shot may also feature in my video as an establishing shot. The birds-eye view is different  to most other angles and is somewhat unnatural. Often used for dramatic effect, this angle shows the scene from a different perspective and often shows the audience something that the actors cannot see. Ideally I would have a birds-eye shot of Cromer beach from a long, long way up - unfortunately as I lack access to any kind of helicopter or plane, this will not be possible.

These perspective shots are  very clever shots because they create the illusion of a vanishing point. It can be used for example to tell a story say if somebody is leaving. This is perfect for my storyline in my video because Cameron is leaving his troubles behind and so this could potentially be my final shot. This exact shot in this exact location has been used in a recent film called 'In love with Alma Cogan' (see below). Also, see my post on this film and the its set. The location of the film happens to be Cromer and it's pier, the same as my music video. Read the post to gain an understanding of Cromer pier and its history as well as why it is the perfect location for certain video's.

Roger Lloyd Pack in 'In love with Alma Cogan'

More location shots

Shot List

I felt the best way for me to plan out my shot list would be to work out the timing for each shot as well as the type of shot (angle etc) and its content. This way I would know exactly what shot would correspond with each part of the song and it would be easy to alter each shot because of this.

I started off by writing up a rough table with some shot ideas that I had in mind.

I then copied this into a neat version as well as updating and expanding on some things such as content and shot description.

Time	Shot type/angle	Shot content
0.00-0.02	Extreme long	Location shot of beach
0.02-0.04	Worms eye view	Location shot of ocean
0.04-0.06	Low angle, perspective	Location shot of beach huts
0.06-0.14	Medium	Three girls walking on beach
0.14-0.20	Close up pan	Main girl and her characteristics e.g. costume
0.20-0.26	Reverse follow	Boy walking towards camera on beach and mouthing lyrics
0.26-0.30	Medium, high angle	Girl dancing, drunk (flashback)
0.30-0.36	Reverse follow	Boy walking towards camera on beach and mouthing lyrics
0.36-0.42	Medium, high angle pan	Boy and girl dancing (flashback)
0.42-0.48	Extreme close up	Boy and girl smiling at each other about to kiss (flashback)
0.48-0.54	Medium	Boy and girl on a date of some sort (flashback)
0.54-0.58	Reverse follow	Boy walking towards camera on beach and mouthing lyrics
0.58-1.04	Medium, high angle	Boy getting angry and making a mess (flashback)
1.04-1.08	Reverse follow	Boy walking towards camera on beach and mouthing lyrics
1.08-1.14	Birds eye, slow motion	Boy falling back onto bed (flashback)
1.14-1.20	Various cuts	Boy in same location as the date but this time alone (flashback)
1.20-1.26	Reverse follow	Boy walking towards camera on beach and mouthing lyrics
1.26-1.30	Medium/long, high angle	Boy and girl meet and he is asking for her to reconsider (flashback)
1.30-1.36	Medium, high angle	Boy drunk (flashback)
1.36-1.42	Reverse follow	Boy walking towards camera on beach and mouthing lyrics
1.42-1.48	Unsteady pan	Boy drunk and upset (flashback)
1.48-1.54	Reverse follow	Boy walking towards camera on beach and mouthing lyrics
1.54-1.58	Medium	Three girls walking on beach
1.58-2.00	Close up	Main girl reaches into her pocket
2.00-2.04	Extreme close up	Girl’s eyes reading text message
2.04-2.08	Medium	Three girls walking – main girl puts phone back in pocket and looks sad
2.08-2.10	Reverse follow	Boy walking towards camera on beach and mouthing lyrics
2.10-2.13	Medium	Boy and girl eating ice cream at the seaside (flashback)
2.13-2.16	Close up	Boy cutting up photograph from that moment (flashback)
2.16-2.19	Medium	Boy and girl having a pillow fight (flashback)
2.19-2.22	Close up	Boy cutting up photograph from that moment (flashback)
2.22-2.25	Medium	Boy and girl eating a meal (flashback)
2.25-2.28	Close up	Boy cutting up photograph from that moment (flashback)
2.28-2.34	Reverse follow	Boy walking towards camera on beach and mouthing lyrics
2.34-2.41	Bird’s eye, long	Boy throwing ashes into ocean
2.41-2.48	Low angle, pan	Boy standing with arms in air, happy
2.48-2.56	Reverse follow	Boy walking towards camera on beach and mouthing lyrics
2.56-3.00	High angle, long	Boy and girls walking towards each other
3.00-3.04	Medium	Girls seeing what is wrong with their friend who looks shocked
3.04-3.08	Reverse follow	Boy walking towards camera on beach and mouthing lyrics
3.08-3.12	Side on, medium	Boy walking past girls who are stationary – they turn when he passes
3.12-3.20	Straight on	Boy walking away from camera with his back turned