History of Music Videos

The Exciters "Tell Him" (1962) is perhaps the first promo film made for a song (rather than extracted from a musical film.) From looking at this music video and comparing it to other more modern music videos i made two lists listing the differences of them.

Things that are still conventional in music videos

-young and attractive women

-dancing and movement

-singing to the camera

-lip sync

-attempt at tracking shot

-external location

-attempts at cuts, moving active

-pan away at end

Things that appear to be dated in comparison with modern music videos

-choreography

-out of time lip sync

-random- animals etc

-cutting is too slow

-non sexual

-the song itself is dates

-film quality

-costumes

Film Genres

Below is a list of film genres, these will apply to all films. I will, therefore, create a second list of genres ideal for short film.

-horror

-western

-thriller

-fantasy

-chick-flick

-romantic-comedy

-comedy

-romance

-road films

-sci-fi

-spy

-action adventure

-musical

-crime

-slasher

-bollywood

-period/heritage

-sports films

-bi-opics

-detective

-war

-disaster

-animation

-film noir

-guy fims

-melo-dramas

-supernatural

These genres would be more ideal for a short film

-horror

-comedy

-spy

-crime

-melo-dramas

Conventions of Music Videos

I have made a list of the typical conventions of music videos. These are listed below

-Purpose

-promote band/song

-sell product (shift units)

-itunes (£2 for a video)

-Pastiche, parody, homage, intertextuality

-similarstyle

-mockery

-tribute

-In-concert "as live" footage (more naturalistic)

-Artificial performance (non naturalistic, like classical musical burst into song

-MTV cutting /editing matches beat

-Challenging or using existing tropes and memes

-Montage, anchores by music

-Choreography

-Multiple locations and situations and costumes

-Direct address by performer (breaking the fourth wall)

-Lip-sync

-Symblosim

-Narrative/mini-movie aproach

-compressed narrative

-Interpretive, abstract approach

-Act out "story" of song

-Genre effects style

-sex appeal

My A2 Coursework Briefs

For my A2 coursework I will be working in film. I have been given three options for my coursework breifs, I will only choose one of these to complete.


These include:

-A promo packagemusic video.
-A promo package for film trailer
-A short film for five minutes

Each of these have three subsidary tasks which I must choose two from the Brief I use. These include

1-Music magazine advertisement for digipak
1-Website homepage
1-Cover of digipak

2-Poster for the film
2-Film magazine front cover
2-Website homepage

3-Film magazine review page
3-Radio trailer
3-Poster advert for film