Existing media texts

For my A2 piece of work I have chosen to create a music video to the sound track “breathe me” by Sia. I don’t think that this song has one particular genre and instead shares similar conventions of a pop/dance song. This research will give me an insight into the typical codes and conventions following the genre of my chosen song. My chosen song is a ballad meaning that my video must tell a story to show the emotions in the song. For my video I have decided that I want my characters to be dancing in a room with black walls with harsh lighting in the center of the room. It is typical in a for a ballad to have the artist in the video singing and telling the story to the audience. 

Costume:

• Dance- Some makeup 'everyday clothing' 
• Pop- Makeup, bright abstract clothing

Location: 

• Dance- Abandoned areas (warehouses), houses, concerts
• Pop- Homes, clubs, streets, school, public locations 

Artist identity: 

• Dance- Normal 'everyday clothing' (no particular dress code)
• pop- Individual clothing (stands out) lots of makeup

Usually in pop, the music videos are very bright and show dancing, partying and other social events. The music usually contains a dance beat with a synthesizer melody. 

In the video for ‘listen’ by Beyoncé, the artist is stood in the center of the shot with a simple white or black back drop singing into the camera, the medium close up shot shows the singers face clearly to see her emotions as she sings the song to the audience. This song is a pop ballad and I would like to do similar things to this in my video. 

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In Katy Perry’s video ‘Thinking of you’ the video is more of a narrative piece which tells a story. The video has many different scenes which gives the images to the audience about what the song is about. In my video I think that my song will have a few different shots but rather than give a story like this video does I will be filming shots of the dancers/artist and scenery outside.  

This is another video for a song by the same artist I have chosen, Sia. This video she has created is like an animated puppet, most of the videos that have been created for her songs are a bit ‘strange’, I think that for the video I will create will be a lot more serious than her other videos because of the difference in the type of song. 

Cinematography- In a video for a ballad the shots used are usually close up shots showing the faces of the artist and the lyrics being sung. For my video I have decided to use a lot of close up shots to show the artists facial expressions, emotions. The use of long shots is usually to show the audience the setting and area around the artists, when filming my artists I may use long shots to show the emptiness around them as the setting around them will be a large black space. The camera movement is important in a music video; I do not want to create my video using one shot the whole way through and instead will use pans and view the artists from different angles. Zooming in and out in the video will be important as it will give the audience the opportunity to focus on one thing at a time. 

Editing- There are two main types of editing; Montage editing and continuity editing. Continuity editing shows the audience a neatly put together video, which is fluent and is created by using transitions linking the shots together. Montage editing shows the audience multiple things at once by using different shots to show many different things, this type of editing is sometimes used at the beginning of a video to give the audience an insight of what is about to happen. 

Mise en scene- I will be filming the majority of my video in a black studio; I will be using a spotlight on the artists so that the audience can only see the artists and nothing around them. Because the song is quite a slow ballad I think that I will also add a few shots of scenery outside; water, large open spaces and abandoned warehouses. To create a sense of loneliness showing the audience what the song is about. Costume and makeup is extremely important in a music video as these two things alone can tell a story about the artist, in my video the two dancers will be wearing completely opposite clothing, one in light costume and makeup and the other in a darker costume and makeup. 

Sound- The only sound in my music video will be the song itself, sometimes in a music video the artist chooses to speak to give an intro into the video, or to speak during the video to show something important.