Alexis Nicholas & Tristan Boor – Teenagers by My Chemical Romance
Noah Hamlin & Jack Broughton – Loser by Beck
Diana German & Tiffanie Rook – Island in the Sun by Weezer
Autumn Young, Mason Olson, Hannalyn Ohlsen, Michaela Headley – Monster by Skillet
Jerry Swanson and Rico Stiebner – The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens
Great job cinemetographers!
Michaela & Hannalyn – Space Land
Jack Broughton – The Last Pancake
The Assignment:
Make a concept or narrative music video of a song of your choice. The video is to be between 2 and 4 minutes in length.
1. Watch music video examples
2. Find a good song, one that will tell a story. Pick a song that you love. Also, consider finding a song that is unique, or unusual.
Avoid songs with swear words and explicit (overly sexual or violent) lyrics. This video should be PG13. If there is a swear, bleep it out.
3. You may (and should) incorporate people playing instruments and singing, but this should not be the majority of your video. My assignment is to create a narrative or concept based video, tell a story, be creative!
Assignments Before Filming:
1. Write a Description of your Music Video. What is your story or concept in great detail? Don’t forget costumes, editing and shooting style etc. Your answer should be 4-5 sentences. Post this to your blog, along with the song title, artist and lyrics.
2. Create a Storyboard for your Music Video. Show me in person or post it to your blog!
3. Create a set list
actors, costumes/props, settings
We will work together as a class to film everyone scenes.
4. Print out lyrics for all of your actors. Its very difficult to lip sync, this will help everyone follow along with the words and the ideas.
Requirements:
The video is meant to be cohesive and tell a story that makes a statement
Credits include the song, album, singers, producers (album company), and year the song was made. Also give the actors credit!
I want my MTV! Music Videos are….Awesome. At first music was only played live, then humans found ways to record it, play it on the radio, then came MTV and…the music video! Making music videos is an art form. Usually a song tells some sort of story and so do music videos. Most music videos have some sort of musical performance by the band, but that is rarely all that they contain. There are two main types of music videos.
Narrative Based Video
A narrative based music video tells a story. Actors or members of the band perform a story that sometimes is connected to the lyrics of the song, but that isn’t always the case.
Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel is a narrative type music video. In 1987, this video won 9 MTV Video Music Awards. Aardman Animations (Wallace and Gromit) and the Brothers Quay provided claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song. Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while filming the video one frame at a time.
Concept Based Video
This is a style of music video that is based around a single concept or idea which has no relation to the music or lyrics or the song.
Don’t Come Around Here No More, by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is a concept based music video. The music video is themed around Alice in Wonderland and directed by Jeff Stein. Despite causing criticism from feminist groups, the video won an MTV Video Music Award.
Here are an assortment of acclaimed music videos. As we watch each one, please write whether you think it is a narrative or concept based video, and then a brief sentence as to what story it is telling.
Everything is Everything – Lauren Hill
Money For Nothing – Dire Straits
Claymation is a method of animation in which clay figures are filmed using stop-motion photography.
Our next project will be claymation!
Gumby is the first claymation I ever saw. Art Clokey created Gumby in the early 1950s:
Wallace and Gromit is made with claymation:
Animator PES combines clay with everyday objects to make his stop motion animations:
Here are some more:
Smile by Uncle Kracker Claymation
To make a stop motion animation, you need to first prepare your characters, accessories, and background. Then, using a tripod, photograph your animation, moving each object slightly between photos. Here is a tutorial:
Video: Did you record your commercial many times from different distances and angles? Good! Now start editing it.
1. Watch all of the takes
2. Splice up your takes and use the best parts. Remember to include different shots! That is a focus of this assignment. (see Camera Shots post)
3. Arrange spliced sections in an order that makes sense and try to make it flow smoothly.
Audio:
1. If the sound quality of your commercial is poor, re-record the audio using our microphones. Try to make the sound sync with the video!
2. Record any narration you need with a microphone as well.
Music: Add music to your commercial, use this site: Freeplay Music (legal), great resource! Choose a song that goes with the feeling you wish to convey.
Logo: Include the logo from your product in your commercial, probably at the end…
Have fun, make it cool and professional! Here is the rubric I will be grading you with:
Commercial Rubric:
|
CATEGORY |
4 points |
3 points |
2 points |
1 point |
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| Audio Quality | Volume is loud enough to be heard by all audience members throughout the presentation. | Volume is loud enough to be heard by all audience members at least 90% of the time. | Volume is loud enough to be heard by all audience members at least 80% of the time. Some background noises are heard. | Volume often too soft to be heard by all audience members. Background noises are distracting | ||||
| Video Quality | Tripod was used, video is thoughtfully framed and edited in a smooth way. | Tripod was used, video is thoughtfully framed and edited in a smooth way 90% of the time. | No tripod, video is thoughtfully framed and edited in a smooth way 80% of the time. | Video is shaky or unfocused, edited in a sloppy way | ||||
| Props & Costumes | Students use several props/costumes that show considerable work/creativity and which make the presentation better. | Students use some prop/costume that shows considerable work/creativity and which make the presentation better. | Students use 1 prop/costume which makes the presentation better. | The students use no props/costumes OR the props/costumes chosen detract from the presentation. | ||||
| Professionalism |
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. |
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| Shots | Commercial includes at least 4 different shot sizes/angles. | Commercial includes at least 3 different shot sizes/angles. | Commercial includes at least 2 different shot sizes/angles. | Commercial only includes one type of shot. | ||||
| Content | Commercial’s persuasive technique is clear and effective. It is clear what the product is and who the target audience is. Product logo is included in commercial | Commercial’s persuasive technique is somewhat clear and effective. It is clear what the product is. Product logo is included. | Product is clear but persuasive technique is not and seems random. | The product, audience, and persuasive technique are all confusing. | ||||
| Meaningful Audio Soundtrack | Music stirs a rich emotional response that matches the story line well. Images coordinated with the music. | Music stirs a rich emotional response that somewhat matches the story line. Images mostly coordinated with the music. | Music is ok, and not distracting, but it does not add much to the story. Not coordinated with images. | Music is distracting, inappropriate, OR was not used. |
To make your commercial, you may work in groups of 2-4.
Decide as a group who has the strongest commercial idea.
i. You may borrow props/costumes from the theatre, bring them from home, or make them using materials in the art room.
2. Film it! Preferably during class but if the set doesn’t allow that you could do it after school.
Filming tips: