Research!

As can be seen from this video in particular, not all videos necessarily need a star.
Arctic Monkey’s completely prove this theory. The fact that throughout the entire video, not one member of the band is seen portrays the idea that the song is about the music and the story behind the lyrics rather than all about the band and how famous they want to get by showing themselves and nothing else.
The Arctic Monkeys have been around for years now, and even though a few of their videos show themselves performing, most of their songs show meaning and a story which is normally dark and mysterious. This is a great way of allowing the audience to listen to the music properly to take it in and understand the lyrics with the story that is shown rather than by just looking straight at the band.
Personally, this makes me enjoy the music that bit more. It shows that thought has actually been put into the production of the video, rather than concentrating on how the band look and the effect that look has on the audience.


In some ways, the artist is important. Watching a band play on screen as well as having a background story definitely has an immediate effect on the audience. By being able to see each stage of the story clearly, and then bouncing back to the artist actually puts more emphasis on the emotion of the video. For example, Paramore – Misery Business is an angry, bitchy, video which is portrayed a large percentage of the time through the performance of the lead singer, Hayley Williams.


Directors Research


Shane C. Drake
Shane is an American music video director from California. He has directed videos for many different genres of music and many different artists, for example:
Hawthorne Heights, Timbaland, Trivium, Panic at the Disco, Flo Rida, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and many more.

Shane has directed more than 50 music videos in his career and co-produced three films. He owns Red Van Pictures which is a Los Angeles Production Company. He first started off as an editor and then a cinematographer with such bands as The Deftones and Thursday.

One of the videos that Drake recently made in 2008 was 'Woah Oh!' - Forever the Sickest Kids:

Most of the sets that Drake uses are unique and interesting. This gives me inspiration to make my video different and non-commercial. Shane also uses the band in his videos quite a lot, which we will probably not be doing, but he they are portrayed in a very quirky, interesting way.

For example, in the Forever the Sickest Kids video, Drake has chosen an airport with what looks like a real aeroplane in the background to make it look more interesting and gives the audience a reason to watch on as they wonder why it is there. The car racing is also another great eye-catching technique that gives the audience something else to concentrate on.

The fast paced cars contrasted with the faced paced shots of the band work very well together as it gives a feel of the band and how hyper-active and crazy they are with their music and videos that they want to/have made.

Vincent Morisset

Another great music video director is Vincent Morisset. Seeing as the music I am portraying through my video is acoustic and indie, I thought I would try and find a director that created a music video for a band similar to this category.

Vincent comes from Montreal and was one of the first guinea pigs at UQAM's new media program ten years ago. He has done many videos for bands such as Arcade Fire and Colorblind Clyde. But the one band that really relates to my type of music is City and Colour. There is not actually a video on YouTube for this song, the director took a completely different route and made a sort of interactive game in which the viewer sees the life of one man in a variety of different ways. By being able to zoom in and out, Vincent Morisset gives the audience a chance to re-shape boundaries. It sort of like being in a plaster-scene world. Brilliant. Here is the link:

http://www.cityandcolour.ca/sleepingsickness/sleep.html

Research into genres
I will be researching two different genre videos. At the end, I will explain the differences.
Crazy In Love - Beyonce Ft. Jay Z
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6HPJJjqvG0

The first sequence shots in this video are fast-paced, sexy and exciting all in one. Seeing as Beyonce has been in a best-selling R&B artist since 2005 after splitting with Destiny's Child and realising her first solo album 'B-day' in 2006 she knows her way around the camera and from the first time she appears on the camera she gives a hot and sexy feel to the video in the first 10 seconds.

Yet, before we see Beyonce, we see her 'feature' for the song, Jay Z. It seems that he is sitting in the car that is speeding towards Beyonce and closing up on her body and also taking a mid-shot of her to listen to her say 'You ready?'.


The edit then goes straight back to Jay Z to watch his head nod in agreement.
The sexiness then steps in once again as the camera shows a long shot of Beyonce walking towards it and taking her hair out to swing it around in a typically seductive way.


The camera then puts Beyonce walking in slow motion towards the camera to again add to the provocativeness of the music video. This goes alongside another slow motion shot of Beyonce's sexy red stilettos and then up to her curvaceous, voluptuous bum.
Even more provocativeness is injected into the video straight after another very quick shot of Jay Z adjusting his cap by then shooting the entire of Beyonce's body, including her very long legs with such tiny shorts on.

After that shot, we see a few more 2 second clips of Jay Z rapping for the start of the song and, in a non-obvious way, is seems that he is showing his gratitude for Beyonce's amazing body.
The video then really kicks off as Beyonce starts her dance routine and the camera mixes long-shots, mid-shots and close-ups of her body and the way she is dancing. The camera adds to the fast-paced, erotic dancing with around one second edits.

We really get the idea of how seductive Beyonce really wants to be in this video half way through the video when the camera takes four slow motion shots of her in different poses to show how sexy she is and then cuts straight back to more hot shots of her doing the rest of her dance routine.

The video then cuts to another location with Beyonce dancing. In this location she seems to be on the roof of a building in New York. To represent her fame and fortune, bright flashing lights are set up around her to represent paparazzi. The cameras move around her and the edits are, again, fast-paced and cut very short to keep the video interesting and exciting.
There is even a shot of what looks like a camera opening its lenses.

The video then again changes to its third location in a what looks like a back street. This time, Beyonce has five women to dance with her to make the video even more sexy and seductive as they all shake their bum's in what is said to be Beyonce's 'signature' thing to do.

The camera then uses close-ups and medium shots of Beyonce and her girl dancers and they slam onto walls and walk seductively towards the camera, teasing the audience.
The camera then cuts to Beyonce trapped in a car. It shows her sweating and slightly distressed. The camera in the right hand corner of the car sees Beyonce as she moves around in the car as if she is trying to get out and stares into it as if she is a damsel in distress pleading with it. This adds to the tension of the video and makes the audience want to watch on to see how the story turns out. The short cuts, again, add to the fast pace of the music video.

A cut is then used to move outside of the car where we see the shadowy figure of Jay Z and then cuts back to Beyonce as she is oblivious to the fact that he is just a few feet away from her trapped in the car that can be seen in the long-shot behind him. We then see a close-up shot of Jay Z's lighter being flicked open as the fire shoots out and as this happens, the camera returns to a close up of Beyonce looking to her left as though she heard the sound of the lighter. This really adds to the story through the song.

The camera then cuts back to a close-up slow motion shot of the lighter dropping to the floor and setting the petrol that seems to run from the car to Jay Z's feet on fire. The camera then follows the fire down the line of petrol slowly with back and forth shots of Beyonce still frantically moving around in the locked car. Another long-shot is then taken of the fire speeding up down the line of petrol to the car that the audience would assume Beyonce was inside of, adding even more tension into the story of the song.

The car then blows up as the line of petrol gets to the car, it blows up and the light from the fire and explosion light the entire screen of the video as Jay Z stands there in awe with his back to it.
7 seconds of very quick edits from Beyonce inside the car frantic and rolling around to Jay Z outside of the car with his back to it is then used. This adds more suspense to the video as anything could happen in the story from this point.

When the sequence ends the camera now concentrates on a mid-shot of Jay Z with amazingly bright fire behind him as he sings a few lines. The camera then cuts after about 5 seconds to one mid-shot of the front of his face and then cuts to another mid-shot of his profile.

Straight after these shots, Beyonce walks back into the scene and this is seen through a low long-shot. A series of long-shots, mid-shots and close ups are then used on the pair as Beyonce walks around Jay Z and gets up-close and personal with him. This adds sexual tension to the couple and the video as well as injecting that bit more of provocativeness from Beyonce in her tiny 'onesy'.

Two-shots in the video are then used very frequently as Jay-Z raps for his longest part in the song. At one point there is a two-shot from a low angle which makes both the artists look powerful and as though they own the video and the story. Between the twos-hots there are also close-ups and mid-shots of Jay-Z used as this part of the song concentrates on him mostly with Beyonce as his partner, rather than the other way round as it has been prior to this section.

A close up of Beyonce's face as she bows down and breathes in and out staring into the camera is then used to catch the audience's eye and brings them further into the life and story behind the song. A cut to Jay-Z's back facing the ruins of the hot explosion on the car is then used which eventually cuts back to Beyonce looking hot and sexy. This is a great contrast between the two things. A real, blazing fire compared to an irresistibly beautiful woman injects even more erotic fantasies into the video.

Even more two-shots of the pair in the deserted street in front of the blazing fire are then used as Jay-Z carries on with his part of the song. Making these edits around 2 seconds long makes the video fast-paced and exciting to see what is going to happen at the end and what shot the song will finish with.

The video then cuts to another slow-motion shot of Beyonce kneeling on the floor with her body out, again, staring into the camera with such intensity to keep the audience glued to her eyes as she is glued to the camera.

This shot then fades out to another shot of Beyonce. This time she wears jeans and looks a lot more casual as she takes slow-motion steps towards a fire hydrant in her huge heels and small crop-top. The street is dimly lit by lamposts which adds to the tension of what she is going to do and also the sexiness of her walk. She then raises her leg to to kick the fire hydrant and the camera cuts quickly to just her foot and the end of her leg kicking off the cap and letting the water burst out profusely.

Two-shots from the previous sequences are then used of Jay-Z and Beyonce but quickly cut back to Beyonce on her own, with her arms in the air, dancing underneath the 'rain' of the fire hydrant. She looks like more of a sexy silhouette which, again, adds to the heat of the video.

A sequence of cuts is then used within the scene of Beyonce under the water from the fire hydrant. Close-ups of her running her hands all over her hair, body, face mixed with fast cuts of quick, jolting, dance moves makes this scene like a steamy fantasy.

A cut within this sequence is then used to move to yet another location and another outfit. As Beyonce stands next to a huge fan in her fluorescent orange outfit, the audience is captured yet again. Yet, at this point, the video is still cutting from the new location back to the water hydrant scene just as it did before hand in the video, i.e. from two shots to water hydrants.

The cuts contrast between a wet, dark Beyonce to a dry bright and colourful Beyonce which injects even more life into the sequence.

A shot of Beyonce walking forward looking extra beautiful with five dancers in the same extravagant colours walking the opposite way to get behind her is then used to introduce the audience to the scene. A series of fast cuts between long-shots, mid-shots and close ups are used on Beyonce and her backing dancers to ensure that all the dancing and provocativeness is packed into the scene. The video then, again, cuts back to the fire hydrant scene but straight back to the fast cuts on in front of the huge fan.

The video ends with Beyonce and her girls walking towards the fan and back out into the distance and then finally back to the scene in which she is in the car with just a close-up of her face staring into the camera to finish it off with a sexy bang.

Ending slowly is great for this video as seeing as it has been so fast-paced it leaves the audience at the end calmly, yet still out of breath.