Forms & Conventions Of Music Videos

The Seven Conventions Of Music Videos

1. Lyrics
2. Music
3. Genre
4. Camerawork
5. Intertextuality 
6. Editing
7. Narrative and Performance

Forms and Conventions

The theories of Goodwin

Goodwin Extract

SUMMARISE 

Ilustration

Amplification

Disjuncture

conempory videos fit into catagorys state why

Auteur Theory / Director as Auteur

An Auteur is a filmmaker whose personal influence and artistic control over a movie are so great that the filmmaker is regarded as the author of the movie’. You would expect to see the film-maker’s distinctive and original style writ large throughout the film, and it would be considered to be their film even though he or she has the assistance of many other people and skills to create the project. Famous auteur directors include Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplain and Quentin Tarantino. Their films are instantly recognisable and unique to them.

Ian Wolfson / REX ARROW FILMS

Ian Wolfson is an independent filmmaker best known for his collaborative work with independent hip hop artist, Mac Miller. Over the past three years, their collaboration has amassed 400 million views online, as well as broad exposure on the MTV, VH1 and Fuse Networks. Through his company, Rex Arrow Films, Ian has also worked with dozens of other artists including Nelly, B.o.B., Bun B and Freeway. Having already completed one feature film, Ian has several new film projects currently in development.

After graduating from Taylor Allderdice High School (in the fall of the year he left, Wiz Khalifa began his freshman year), Wolfson went to Columbia University to study film theory and creative writing. After college, he worked a year in a video store, Kim’s Mediapolis (“Textbook what you do if you want to be a filmmaker”). He returned to the ‘Burgh when the opportunity to make Invisible Cities arose. A year later, in 2009, he filmed Miller’s first video for “Cruisin’."

Jean-Luc Godard’s (a renowned French auteur) film Breathless was the first film he saw in college that inspired him, because at that time in the French film industry there were accepted film mechanisms in place. Wolfson says – “And Godard was like, screw all that, I’m going to go out with a camera with some young kids and essentially break all the rules. And that mentality is extremely influential in why Mac and I have been able to go out and do what we’ve done. When we first started, we didn’t have any money at all. We were just like, let’s go out and see what we can do”. 

Creative Vision: He is a filmmaker whose work is instantly recognisable and yet it’s his love of the music and artists he films that shines though his work. He visualizes and creates films of what he hears in the music and sees in the artist and communicates that to the audience, He says:

“I think the first half of my career was much more documentary style, sort of a day in the life. Now, because my interests have changed, I’ve sort of put the focus on trying to do things that interest me in terms of concept, visuals, or the equipment that we use. I think one answer is it’s really important to try to do a video that really doesn’t artificially force an image on the artist. That could mean if the artist isn’t naturally charismatic, interesting, or quirky, then they may not make it as an artist in the long term. I think you have to have that – whether you’re Mac or A$AP Rocky you have to have that thing that draws people to you. I’m always hesitant to sort of superimpose something on the artist. I think the artist has to be interesting. Mac for example, there were so many elements against him in the beginning, but he was accessible and didn’t take himself too seriously. He clearly was enjoying himself and I think people connected with that”.

In any shoot I have to be fair to the artist. My goal is always to try to give them as close to what they want as possible. Now, often times I feel like I’m able to say, “Ok, cool. I know what you want but I think this will be more interesting or more exciting” and usually it works. I think I’ve maybe only had one instance where I really had to go back to the editing or go back to the coloring to make them happy.

Wolfson is an auteur because his work is unique to him. His personal creative vision is communicated in all his work. The way he interprets and portrays Mac Miller's songs visually is truly creative and unique. And since he's been filming Mac since 2009, the techniques used has developed as Mac has also developed lyrically. His videos range from portraying different emotions, matching which song Mac's performing, some examples of his styles are care free, happy and brightly coloured - such as 'Senior Skip Day', then in 'Missed Calls' where Mac is talking about a lost love, a more matured and emotional narrative video. Another example of his various styles is in Mac's video 'SDS' off his latest album, the video demonstrates witty humour as well as a lot of green screen animation.

What Music Means to Me

What Music Means To Me

I start and end every day listening to music, I use it to wake up in the morning and fall asleep in the evening. As I listen to multiple genres of music, I have music that I would consider more suitable at different times of the day. My favourite genres are Hip-Hop/Rap & House, so I tend to listen to them through the majority of the day (including mornings). When at night time I would tend to listen to either a slow rap song or electronic, indie rock, or rock. I love going to watch my favourite artists live at gigs, I have attended many this year as well as several festivals, I love the atmosphere when watching live music as everyone is as passionate about that artist as you are. I tend to listen to most of my music on my iPhone using either the music app or Soundcloud. 
Soundcloud is a great format as it lets me explore artists that I wouldn't otherwise listen to as new music is constantly shared onto my timeline which I look at every day. It is completely free to listen, and it means you don't have to download anything, you can just sign into your account on any device and it loads all your previously saved music for you to listen anywhere. 

It's hard to put into words what music makes you feel, from my perspective it can be a form of relaxation, getting hyped before or at a party, a way of relieving stress and even keeping concentrated. When i listen to music on my own, usually through earphones i tend to zone out of reality and just become focused on what i'm doing, which i've found to be an effective way of doing school work. As i've got older my music taste has developed it's only been the past 3 years that I have really found my taste, as before it was a bit scattered - listening to a bit of this and that, not really having a favourite artist etc. I got into Hip-Hop through an American artist called 'Logic', from then I quickly began to find more and more artists associated and similar to him and as I listened to more and more different varieties of Hip-Hop my taste grew and started to develop. When I saw Logic live in March 2013, it was a big thing for me as he was the reason that i listened to the music that i did. 

There hasn't been any major influences on my music taste, I found out about Logic through one of my best friends, but from then on I began to develop my music taste on my own. I got into House music at a later stage, there was always a need to listen to it as my brother was a successful House DJ in the 1990's. I use Soundcloud as my House music source where i can very easily explore different DJ sets and artists. 

Photo taken at Danny Brown's Rough Trade show, (i'm bottom right).

Chuck Berry (Mos Def) in
Cadillac Records.

When I think to the music played during my childhood, I think how musically influential my parents were during my upbringing. I was raised on a vast mixture of genres, with artists such as Elvis Presley, Bob Marley and The Rolling Stones.  I was shown the film 'Cadillac Records' by my father shortly after it came out in 2008, and I completely loved the music and the era's aesthetic quality and vibe. Set in 1950's Chicago, the film shows the lives of some of America's musical legends such as Etta James, Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry. The film featured a lot of the music recorded by the artists on the label, the one that stuck for me was 'Maybellene' by Chuck Berry. I remember being on holiday in southern Italy, driving through the countryside, listening to Chuck Berry's albums and the Cadillac Records Soundtrack in the back of the car with my best friend Gabriel. I later found out that Chuck Berry in the film was played by one of my all time favourite rappers, Mos Def.

Image shows how Numbers samples
Paramore.

There is a song by Logic that i could say could possibly be my favourite song. The song 'Numbers' off his 4th mixtape 'Young Sinatra: Undeniable', gets to me in a way i don't completely understand. Honestly after looking deeper into the lyrics i can say that they aren't particularly deep and meaningful as some of his other tracks, yet he does cover how his sudden fame has caused problems in his love life as he says "the girl I love, the one i call my honey, now i'm wondering if she love me for me or my f*****g money". As i thought deeper about why this song truly does appeal to me I concluded that it's not just the lyricism but the instrumental that i really love. After doing further research on 'WhoSampled.com' I found that the instrumental (Produced by one of Logic's sound engineers - 6ix) sampled the guitar from Paramore's song 'Decode'. I'm not sure what about the guitar riff i like so much, but i could listen to this on repeat forever and still love it.