Did video kill the radio star?

The purpose of music videos and radio stations are to promote the band and their song/s. This will help to increase the sales of their songs so they can climb up the charts and become more successful. However, music videos do one other thing that radio cannot do - they can create a visual image of the band if people haven't seen them live.

Today, music videos are very important on promoting the band. Particularly in recent years where music videos for pop songs seem to have a trope of having big production story lines in them. For example, Lady GaGa's "Telephone" is around 9 minutes long for a 3 minute long song just because of the development of the storyline.

Does this mean though that in today's society bands and music artists are reliant on their image? In pop music I believe so. Lady GaGa being the obvious choose for her controversial outfits and music videos and I hardly doubt that Justin Bieber would have as many fan girls screaming over him if he was portrayed as ugly in the media. But are music artists reliant on their image in other genres of music? Again I think this seems to be case. I don't they're completely reliant upon it but it does seems to make an impact.

For example, 10 or 20 years ago, rock bands wouldn't have seemed to have cared about there image. Now though, it seems that they are when it comes to how they look or what their music videos look like. Take My Chemical Romance's video for "Sing". They have gone along with the trope of having a big production storyline in it. And again, you will hear fan girls discussing about the appearance of the members of these rock bands.

So in my opinion, music videos do play a major part in promoting a band and their song. In fact more than radio now. However, music videos mainly promote the band's image. The main component of all of this, as I see it, is the actual song (although this could be debatable these days). So although radio isn't as significant as music videos are, they are still vital in promoting songs. Hence why I think music videos have not yet killed the radio star.

A Day in the Life of a Ninja!

This our finished mini film project. It has been a lot of fun to make (hense why I added the bloopers to show how much fun it was) and has made me confident about creating my coursework in September.

The idea for this came to me when I saw a sticker on the back of a van saying :

"Vikings eat Pirates and sh*t Ninjas for dinner"

So of course I thought this would be an excellent concept for a short film. The film is basically taking the conventions of old ninja movies and kind of mocking them (just like a parody). All in all it was just a really fun project to do with a lot of laughs!

I hope you like it :)

A Hard Days Night

In a lesson, we watched 'A Hard Days Night' to see the conventions in this film where roughly the same as the ones in modern music videos. It is a documentary styled film showing the life's of the band members, featuring some of their songs as well. At the end of the film they perform on stage "live".

The film did show some conventions that are now seen in today's music videos. For example, it was done on a low budget in black and white, which may be seen in music videos for indie songs. Also, when "Can't Buy Me Love" was being played, the film showed the members of the band goofing around, which again is another trope often found in music videos. And of course the film showed the trope of being chased by fan girls!

In my opinion I thought that the movie was good, even though the rest of my class may disagree with me. Mainly because I'm big fan of The Beatles so I thought it was very cool to see a whole film about them. Also, although some of friends said that the humour of it wasn't understandable, I actually understood it. It was cheesy and a bit out of date but still understandable. Then again as a child I use to watch The Monkees TV series so maybe that's why I understood it a bit more than others.

I could also see some conventions being portrayed from this film though. The goofing around scenes reminded me of The Monkees TV show and also some later films about pop stars such as The Spice Girls Movie (don't judge me-I was 6 years old and I still kind of like the Spice Girls). Therefore, I think that this film as well as The Beatles songs has been very influential on the development of pop music and music videos.

Mini task may need adjustments...

Right, when I was writing the script, I didn't realise that the project had to be only a minute long so I shall have to cut some scenes out in post production. I am including the main fight though so it's all good! :D

Literal music videos

Yesterday, we had a look at some literal music videos online. They're music videos that have a voiceover on top of them explaining what is happening in the video. It's to show how silly music videos really are.

Here are some examples:

Mini task - "A Day in the Life of..."

To get us ready to do the main task, our teacher has assigned a mini video project entitled "A Day in the Life of..." I have already created a screenplay for this and shall post it below:

A Day in the Life of a Ninja!

(blank screen cut to ninja jumping on screen)

Ninja: Hoi-yah! Bet you didn't expect that did you? Anyway, let us proceed to a day in the life of me, a Ninja! (punches to camera and title appears on screen)

Ninja: A ninja starts their day off with a healthy breakfast

(ninja drinks some form of unhealthy drink)

After this they must do a work out to enhance their inner strength. I always start my day by doing the following, one armed push-ups.

(raises hand above head)

Breaking wood

(snaps twig)

and the ultimate challenge...breaking a rock with ones head!

(breaks rock with head)

Ninja: (turns to person off screen) So we'll just edit that part won't we...okay. Great stuff.

A ninja must also practice their skills to the fullest throughout their day. The first skill a ninja should have is the element of surprise.

(ninja scares little girl but then gets scared by her)

They should also possess the skill to disappear and seemingly teleport out of harms way.

(clips showing ninja going under table and coming out the other side)

Finally, they must be able to run at lightening speed to avoid being captured.

(montage of clips of ninja running that will be sped up during post-production. Either have a voiceover/Benny Hill song in the background)

Ninja: It's hard being a ninja but doing these things on a daily basis helps me to be the best. With my ninja skills , none of my mortal enemies can defeat me.

(Pirate barges in. The next conversation is out of synch with the clip to give it an old ninja movie look. Ninja turns around in shock)

What are you doing here?

Pirate: It is time us to settle once and for all which one of us is best!

Ninja: Fine. Prepare for some serious ass whooping!

Pirate: ARGG! We'll see about that matey!

Ninja: OK

(no more out of synch talking. Montage of fight including a slow motion kick and a slow motion sword whip. Ninja wins)

Ninja: Hoi-yah! Take that!

(shows Pirate dead on the floor)

I am the greatest! Nothing can stop me! Nothing!

Viking: Wanna bet?

(Ninja turns around nervously to see Viking at the door with a weapon of some form. Viking then charges at Ninja and kills him. He picks up his weapon, holds it to his face and growls at the camera. This cues the credits to start)

I was thinking for the credits, we could show clips of the person and have their name and character on screen.

I say we because Corinne Allen is going to work with me on this project and has already given me some great ideas on the film.