CASE STUDY 2: Twenty One Pilots - Stressed Out

In this music video, the duo from Twenty One Pilots have had another single for their fourth studio album, "BlurryFace" uploaded on April 27, 2015. Mark C. Eshleman from "Reel Bear Media" was the producer for the video and has set out to create a mix of concept and performance style film as both stars are seen throughout the whole video; Also having the theme on adolescence the title "Stressed Out" can tell us that it's pressuring to have grown up as opposed to being young.

The duo is seen to be doing their childhood hobbies, riding tricycles and literally going to each other's houses to record the song, as they went to Josh Dun's childhood home in Ohio to film for the music video. They are seen to be wearing dark clothes and full red at the near end who is supposed to be the character "Blurryface", the dark alter ego of the singer.

For camera, he cycles into the view of a tracking shot, as the camera is going backwards to capture the front of Joseph on his bicycle. This happens often throughout the video and used to lip sync parts of the song. Handheld is also used when he's approaching Dun's house and furthermore used in a mix with still close ups and wide shots in the room. Special effects weren't used however to the near end it constantly cuts to and away from a scene with him having red eyes which could be easily done with CGI or manually done with contacts.

Noticeably, as the motif is about being stressed through the transition to adulthood we can see that the cutting rate gradually rises throughout the video connoting the build up of anxiety. Interaction between the stars is seen through a few scenes in the video. Dialogue is also written underneath without the speech, all portraying what they did in their childhood around Ohio. The majority of it has the singer lip syncing to the lyrics whereas a part of the hook "My name is blurry face" is not due to this being his other self, telling us he cares about what people think about him, connoting he's insecure.

Mise-en-scene includes the streets of Ohio, bedrooms, the side walk and a white room, presumably done with a backdrop. Actors mainly have the stars as the protagonists who also have members of their family in the scenes in the near end of the video. The duo are seen to be wearing dark clothes and doing their past time hobbies from when they were young; representing themselves as if they were free again. However he seems unhappy with the rest looking gloomy, including the setting of dead trees etc. Again, with their relatives, they all look the same, being dim and unhappy with their son/brother. And in terms of costumes for that scene, they all wear casual clothes whereas the duo look unique with red. It could connote their pressure and issues that they have.

This would target a smaller range of an audience, typically young teens to the age of 23; Encouraged to listen to the record by it's relatable lyrics and Rock/Rap style genre. The ideas I would use from this music video would be it's use of lip-sync, camera angles and set up because it has a good use of tracking shots and interaction between the actors as well as the locations used, street, home and a white backdrop.

CASE STUDY 1: Eminem - Headlights

Headlights is a single by Eminem featuring Nate Ruess from his 8th studio album 'The Marshall Mathers LP 2' which has a narrative style music video with Spike Lee as the director for the short film. Similar to most of Marshall's music this takes on his personal life, however, in a more mature manner he wrote a remorseful song as a tribute to his mother, Debbie Mathers. The music video was released on 11th of May, 2014, Mother's Day.

Retaining the genre of hip-hop, the music video has a slow tempo and has a calm tone to it because it's nostalgic and emotional as the theme and motif is about his relationship with his mom who is also the protagonist. The video takes us to her perspective on how she copes alone while trying to reconnect with her son; Having the majority of the video in a first person can express loneliness and rejection due to Eminem's hate on his previous songs referenced on the TV as well as the guards not letting her in to see him.

Camera wise, still, focused shots of various places around a neighborhood (presumably where his mom lives) is shown at the few first seconds and is synced with the beat. Transitioning from an establishing shot of her home it cuts to a point of view shot using the handheld position as it's shaky and life-like. There are also a few third person/over the shoulder shots from the back of the protagonist, concealing her face; connoting how she felt irrelevant and unknown. Some close ups also appear on relatives of the family and when she meets Marshall at his drive way, the star is shown acting for a brief moment who's also presented in old photos. For representation, he's seen to be genuine as he's dressed up in his usual outfit, driving his car out of his home as if he's doing his daily chores.

Editing is used such as the flash back technique that had a sepia special effect to show that the clips and photos were from the past. After a fade transition of the protagonist driving away in a panning, high angle shot, a blur effect was used on the headlights of her car as she left the driveway telling us that it was sad for Marshall to see her go and part ways. Lip syncing was not used in the music video.
For mise-en-scene, it has a more realistic look on life, as we observe through her eyes in her home. However the whole music video takes place in Detroit, Michigan where the setting is around a neighborhood and in front of Eminem's home.

Although it's about Eminem's life, many people can relate to him and this alone has been a factor to encourage people to buy his records. This one in particular would target a wide range from late teens to adults (17 - 30). The ideas I would use for my own would include the camera techniques; to use the first person perspective as well as the stills shown at the beginning.

Lip Sync Practice

In a group we created a music video with proper camera equipment and combined the clips with a editing software, premier pro. With this we tried to lip sync the video to the music through editing and get a feel of how we are going to make a music video in A2 Media.

 

Setting up a Camera

In our next lesson we had a technician come in to explain how to set up a digital camera, including settings to adapt the camera to its surroundings as it can be filmed during the night, day or with artificial lighting which need to be configured through the camera for best video quality. We also learnt how to set up the camera onto a tripod, so that we can get a still moving image unlike handheld, where it's usually prone to wobble, resulting in the unsteady video recording.

• Firstly, to have optimum video quality we went to main settings, located on top of the camera it gave us a variety of options; scrolling through them on the touchscreen with the arrow buttons until we found quality settings. Set to 1080p, 25 fps 'Frames Per Second' at a resolution of '1920 by 1080'.

• Exposure control: This determines how light or dark the video will be recorded at. The Shutter Speed is set to 50, this changes how fast or slow the shutter closes, being how long the lens is exposed to light; the faster the speed the less light goes in, and the slower it is the more light goes in. This usually depends on the subject, as the brighter it is the faster the shutter speed needs to be.

• Aperture: Located in the middle of the lens is a hole for light to pass through into the camera. A low aperture increases the opening of the lens and vice-versa. It is measured in 'F-Stops', so given that the F-Stop is set to f/1.4, the aperture, being the opening of the lens, becomes wide. This brings everything into focus as it is able to take more light in,

• ISO: Controls the sensitivity of the light sensor, this should be set on a low setting of 100 and not above 1600 if used in well-lit areas as it does not need to detect too much light as this will grain the image, giving it a static look. The sensitivity will need to be raised if used in dark areas so it can sense more light to brighten the image, however this will add grain, also known as 'noise'.

• Colour: The Q on the top corner of the camera screen gives us more settings based on colour settings. We set the picture style to Neutral and set the white balance to 'AWB'; the white balance adapts to the light in its surroundings, as if the video/picture is shot under a light bulb, it will reduce the amount of orange in the colour and add more blue to make it seem more neutral

• AF/MF Slider: Located at the front of the camera, this determines weather the focus is adjusted automatically or manually, this must be set to manual as we are able to rotate the front part of the lens to give more focus or blur out the image.

Why create Music Videos?

We find that many music Artists include videos with their work, this is done to promote their songs or albums visually, through music videos to get themselves noticed. Also if they have a partnership they would most likely include them in the video, e.g: Beats by Dr.Dre which is often seen in these types of videos. It attracts attention as they are able to reveal their new album or song through adverts as they are able to show it in a form of a video, rather than sound on websites and/or TV.

Apart from visual music, artists also tend to have merchandise of their own which usually include clothing, footwear, headphones etc. A majority of artists have been featured in shows on TV, radio and in many other places to talk about themselves and their songs, usually discussing of their upcoming album which they promote all on the show as a form of getting themselves noticed.

Analysis Practice of Music Videos

For our first task for A2 Media, we analysed a music video by rapper Jay-Z, 'On to the Next One'. We picked up many motifs from the music video which relate to its genre of rap, as many videos in this genre have a similar theme. The main ones were of cars, money and also women who dance in some parts of the video. The rapper, Jay-Z has also shown himself throughout the video, singing or in editing terms, 'lip-syncing'.

This is because their audio is recorded through a booth in a music studio, with proper equipment such as a microphone, whereas in the actual footage of the video, the singer is usually miming the lyrics. This is because audio isn't recorded during the film as it would sound unprofessional, as opposed to adding the audio to the video in post production.