Michael Jackson's Thriller

Renamed Michael Jackson's Thriller, it was the video that made Pop history as it was unlike anything ever produced before. It was released on the 23rd of January 1984 and is owned by the record label Epic.

The song was originally meant to be called 'Starlight'. Rather than the famous line 'Thriller, Thriller night' it was originally 'Starlight, Starlight sun' but the man who wrote the song - Rod Temperton, had the responsibility of titling the album woke up one day with the world Thriller in his mind, and knew that this is what the album had to be called and therefore changed the song name.

Concept

The video is 14 minutes long, so it is like a small film. The film begins with Michael and a girl in a forest, where Michael suddenly turns in a werewolf. However this is only a film, as we see Michael again sitting in a cinema with a girl watching this. They leave the cinema with Michael taunting the girl that she was scared by the film. They pass a graveyard where zombies start to appear from the ground. They surround Michael and his girl and when Michael turns around he has turned into a zombie too. The song then begins, and a dance routine, however we discover that it was all just a dream.

Video

Through out the video there are many sound special effects used such as a creaking door, thunder, feet walking, dogs and the wind blowing. This all contributes to the eerie feeling of the video.

The location of the music video was filmed at the Palace Theatre in Los Angeles, and the zombie dance sequence was filmed in East Los Angeles.

Styling

The red jacket the Michael wore in the video is one of the most iconic piece of clothing in pop music video, and recently one of the two jackets used in the video has been sold for £1.1 million. It was made for him by designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis.
The makeup used for the zombies were supposed to be made using prosthetics, however the dancers were casted a few days before they started filming, so precast prosthetics were used. Only dancers with proper makeup were used for close up shots.

Adele - Someone Like You

At only the age of 24, Adele has been named one of teh most infleuntial people in the world of music by the american magazine Time, and number five on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music. I chose to research one of her most famous songs, Someone Like You, which owes it success to her performance at the 2011 BRIT awards.

The song is owned by the record label XL and was written and produced by Adele and Dan Wilson. They decided to keep the song as simple as possible as Adele knew exactly what she wanted to say.

Concept

The main inspiration for the song was about a boyfriend Adele had broken up with.  They had been together for 18 months, and after they had split up he had gotten engaged to someone else. Before writing the song, she felt lonely and distraught but after having written it, she felt more at peace.

The main message in the song is about although she is heartbroken, she has to be brave and sings that she wants to find someone like him, although she knows she never will.

Video

The video was shot in Paris, and mainly consists of Adele walking around the streets looking sad and alone. Different black and white shots are used, rather than brightly coloured shots, as they make the scene look more dull and miserable. Everyone praises the video of being perfect for the song, and that just Adele's vocals alone is all that is needed.

It begins with a fade in, and the camera flickers, which gives the impression that it is an old video playing.

There is no animation or text, it is just a simple video of Adele on her own, which gives the message that is just a plain and simple love story and in life there are no special effects to help us, we are just on our own.

Artist

Adele began her successful career after a friend had a put a recording of her singing on the social network site Myspace. After this she recieved a call from the label XL. Her first album, 19, which was named after her age when she released it, enetered the music charts at number one. It is estimated to have sold 6.5 million copies worldwide. Her second and most recent album, 21, has been much more successful and sold over 22 million copies worldwide.

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

As Queen is one of the most famous bands in pop history, I wanted to research one of their most iconic songs. Bohemian Rhapsody was released on the 31st of October 1975, and is owned by four record labels; EMI, Elektra, Parlophone and Hollywood.

Concept

The song is in four parts. The first 50 seconds in the intro and this is acappella. In the video all four of the band members are positioned into a diamond and are singing this part of the song.The second part of the song is between 0.50 and 2.35, and this is a ballad sung by Freddie Mercury. The guitar solo is from 2.35 and 3.03, which is performed by Brian May.
The last section of the song is from 3.03 until the end of the song, 4.07, and is opera-like.

History

When it was released it stayed in the charts for nine weeks, and then again for a further five weeks after Freddie Mercury’s death, making it the third best selling single of all time.  It was also the first song to ever get to number one twice with the same version.

Context

The context was very unusual, however many people have made links to Freddie Mercury’s personal life - funny and flamboyant to the outside world but secretly hiding personal issues about his childhood and the years having to hide his sexuality. For years he lived with a woman called Mary Austin, while secretly hiding his sexuality and the lyrics such as “Mamma Mia let me go” (Mamma – Mother Mary) could reflect that he wanted to escape.

However Freddie Mercury has said that they lyrics have no meaning and are just nonsense, just mock – opera.  Others though see a similarity between the lyrics and the novel ‘The Stranger’ where a young man confesses to a murder.

Video
The music video cost between £40,000 and £45,000 and only took four hours to film.
There are many special effects used in the video that were created while they were recording. The honey effect where the camera films using many hexagonal shapes was created by using a different camera lens. There are many different fades used throughout, most used when the song changes sections. All together the song took five hours to edit and it had to be completed in a week so it could be sent of to be shown on television.

Rihanna - Man Down

I wanted to look at a video by Rihanna, as she is a current and young musician who has already had some very controversial hits. The video I chose was her hit, Man Down, which was released on the 3rd of May 2011. and is owned by the Record Label - Def Jam.

Concept

Rihanna’s video for Man Down was controversial. It is like a mini- film, as it is 5 minutes and 40 seconds long, in which we see Rihanna commit a murder and then regret it. The video begins with her in a station watching a man, and then firing a gun at him and killing him. The song then begins which tells the story of what had happen previously. The video was shot in the Caribbean, and it begins with Rihanna skipping through the town laughing and joking with everyone she meets. She then goes to a club with her friends, and it is suggested that the man she killed raped her outside the club.  

Context

The video was branded ‘sick’ and most people complaining that it was too violent to show on TV. Many people were shocked by the graphic details, and were unhappy that such a sensitive event was put into a song.

Rihanna defended the video through the social networking site Twitter. One tweet she wrote “Young girls/women all over the world...we are a lot of things!  We're strong innocent fun flirtatious vulnerable, and sometimes our innocence can cause us to be naïve! We always think it could NEVER be us, but in reality, it can happen to ANY of us! So ladies be careful." She also carried on to say that she is just a 23 year old pop star just making music, and that this is the real world, you can’t protect children from what happens in reality.

Artist

This isn’t the first video from Rihanna that has received controversy. In fact most of her songs are criticized for being to sexual and being a bad influence on young children. The most famous was her song ‘S&M’. The video was banned in 11 countries, and cannot be played on YouTube unless the user has an account stating they are over 18.

Post production/ special effects

Text is used in the video to separate the murder and then what had happened previously. The screen turns black and the text ‘Yesterday Morning’ appears. This makes the video see more like a story.

Art direction/styling

When the song begins we see Rihanna in the Caribbean laughing with everyone she meets. The lighting used has a yellow effect, which makes the atmosphere seem happy and gives the impression that it is hot and sunny. Rihanna is very white, which gives the impression of innocence, and is wearing bright green socks and colourful red shoes which show that she is in happy place. However after the first chorus, the location changes to see Rihanna dancing in a rough sea. She is also now wearing all black and the lighting has now changed to much darker, which shows that she is no longer innocent.
Representation
One of the stereotypes of a black man in reinforced in the video, as he raped Rihanna. Black men are associated with gangs, drugs and rape.

Madonna - Like a Prayer

The first song I looked into was Madonna's controversial hit, Like a Prayer, which was released on the 21st of March 1989.

Concept

The main concept of the video is about a young girl played by Madonna who is in love with God. We see Madonna witnesses a murder of a girl which was committed by a group of white men. However, a black man is charged with the murder. She escapes to a church where she sees a model of a saint locked away crying. She falls asleep in the church where the saint morphs into the black man charged with the murder who she then sets free. She is then seen dancing in front of burning crosses and a gospel choir singing with her. When she wakes up she tells the police that the man is innocent and he is released.
Context
The video was controversial, as it saw Madonna kiss a black man and have holes in her hands like she had survived crucifixion, and many catholic groups or groups such as the KKK or similar had many negative reactions.  Also there are shots of large crosses on fire, and as the cross is the symbol for the Christianity, it caused distressed. At the time she was currently signed to a Pepsi commercial for $5 billion in which the song featured and an innocent story was used. However, as her video was controversial, many groups threatened to stop drinking Pepsi and so Pepsi removed the commercial.
History
The song was inspired by many different events in Madonna’s life. She had previously been through a divorce, received criticism for her acting and her mum passing away. She wanted a song that was something different and decided to write about a personal matter which was her catholic upbringing. She said that everyday she had a lot of guilt about doing something wrong and if she doesn’t tell someone she would be punished. The song was inspired by the guilt.
Editing
There are lots of cuts used in the video, which makes it look more fast paced. When the man is charged with murder, it constantly cuts from the crime seen, to Madonna watching, to the gospel singers and then to the black man, which reinforces the panic and chaos of the event. Also, when Madonna first enters the church, a handheld camera movement is used, which lets the audience see what Madonna is seeing for the first time when she enters the church and lets the audience know that they first thing she sees and is attracted to is the statue of the saint as the camera instantly moves closer to him. Lots of cuts are then followed showing crosses and pictures of the saint, which shows that is surround by God.
Special Effects
At 1.20, Madonna falls asleep, and we see her dreaming and falling through the sky until she is caught by a woman who tells her to do the right thing. This special effects gives a clue to the audience that Madonna is dreaming, but also that the woman is like a guardian angel and she should be acknowledged.
Representation
The stereotype of black men are being reinforced in the video, as one of the stereotypes is that they are associated with gangs, drugs and rape. Even though the black man didn't murder the young girl, it is thought that he did until Madonna confesses what she saw.

Researching Music Videos

To understand what makes a good music video, I began researching ones that have made pop history. I chose five songs from iconic musicians, and watched their music videos and researched into the making of them. The songs I have chosen have either been very controversial, or unusual.

The Very First Music Video

There is much debate to what was the first ever music video as people have many different opinions to what they classify as a music video.

The first video aired on MTV was 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by The Muggles in America on the 1st of August 1981, however videos were being made earlier than this time.

However, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody has been considered to be the first music video. Although other videos had been made before, it wasn't for the same purpose, Queen's video was purely a video to accompany their song. When it reached Number one in the charts and they were asked to perform on Tops of the Pops, the band were on tour abroad at the time, so they made the video to be played instead.

If a music video is a short film with music, then the first music video dates right back to 1894 with the Dickson Experimental Sound Film by William K.L Dickson. He stands next to a recording horn while playing the violin, and two men are dancing around him.

The Dickson Experimental Sound Film

Music Video Brief

The brief for this project is to make promotion package of an album that includes;

• A music video that we have created
• A CD cover which is part of a digipack
• A magazine advertisement for the digipack

I think it will be interesting making my music video as it is unlike anything I have ever created before. I am looking forward to thinking of new ideas and turning them into reality, however I think this will be difficult as some good ideas that I will think of won't be easy to create.

I am most excited about making the digipack, which will be a CD cover, as existing CD covers are very varied and artistic, and I think it will be fun to play around with different effects and ideas to make my CD different to others.

As I have never made a music video before, I think there will be a lot of new technology I willl have to learn how to use. For example, the video camera will be a new experience, also the program we will use to edit our video. However, I am looking forward to experimenting with these and finding out new tools and techniques I could use.

One of my targets for this year is to keep my blog up to date, so I can document every stage of the production of my project. For the design of my blog, I wanted something exciting, so that is why I found a picture of film reels for the background, as I thought this would link well with the project. I think it makes my blog more interesting rather than a plain colour background.