UNIT 29 - Good and bad music video techniques

50 Cent ft Justin Timberlake - AYO TECHNOLOGY (GOOD Lip sync)

This music video with rapper 50 Cent and singer Justin Timberlake was released in 2007 was at the top of the charts for a good few weeks as it was catchy and the video caught a lot of peoples eye. This video used a fair amount of editing as it was essential to use a lot of technology in the video as the name suggests. Another reason why this video became so popular is because it consisted of two major artists who had their own large fan bases.

In terms of the quality of the music video the lip syncing was very on point and matched every scene it was in with the visuals, the scenes cut fairly quickly so the lip syncing should and would've been an essential part that the artists would have to get right, which they did. A good example of this can be seen at (0:28)-(0:31) where the lyrics are fast in rap form and sung by 50 cent, as seen on screen the lip syncing is very precise and looks like he was rapping then and there. Additionally from Justin Timberlake at around (1:29) he sings in quick succession so this goes well with accurate lip syncing to show the quality of the artists and the music videos visuals. The whole song doesn't have one tempo or pace of music so the lyrics and how they were sung would change throughout, this was done extremely well and made this music video be one of the most popular of its time back in 2007.

BAD LIP SYNCING

This video had poor lip syncing in certain parts of the song. The audio as well as visuals weren't that great so I didn't expect much, In some scenes the visuals didn't match with the visuals. This can be seen at (1:21-1:26) this in my opinion doesn't make the video appealing and it doesn't look "natural".





Michael Jackson - SMOOTH CRIMINAL (BAD Cutting to the beat)

Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal music video which was released in 1987 was a massive hit and the music video was deeply remembered by many mainly for the choreography and the beat of the song. The music video was set in a studio set up of a bar with low lighting to suit the narrative of the music video and set the mood the artist is trying to portray. The video has been featured in many of the top hits and is one of Jacksons most memorable songs along with others such as 'Thriller' and Billy Jean'. However the song "Smooth criminal" was a very fast and tempo beat song which would go well with scenes which cutting to the beat was simultaneous with. In this video the scenes lasted long and didn't cut to the beat at all, this was a disappointment for me as the song contradicted itself form the actual video. This can be seen at (0:30-0:37) where an entire sentence of the song with a fat beat in the background was playing and the scene did not change once. this would of had an effect on the audience and related to the genre of the song a bit more.
     

Chris Brown ft Tyga - AYO (Good cutting to the beat)

This song had good cutting to the beat with most of the main scenes which looked better in the actual music video and it went well with the song. This genre of music is high tempo with the beat so that it "hypes" the viewers and listeners so the cutting to the beat would have to be of the highest quality which it was. This impacts the likability of the actual video as it is used to promote the artist, so the quality really plays a big toll of the video and promotion of the artist. An example of this can be seen at (2:32-2:38),  for me cutting to the beat satisfies me as the viewer and the video looks more appealing. In comparison to a video which has no cutting to the beat this will look off putting to many viewers and can possibly ruin the song, this song however was very fast tempo and cut to the beat precisely hence why the video was remembered by many and people in a way found the video more iconic than the actual song.






Tyga - 40 MILL (Good number of cuts)

The number of cuts a video has can portray a message within the music video, it can also set the mood of the music video as the more number of cuts there are the music may be getting faster or deeper with the tone, if there aren't that many cuts the artist may want to focus on something specific in the music video. In this music video the artist Tyga has various cuts of his house and cars going through the city, from location to location there are cuts to show each section, this is effective as the artist gets to show what he wants and it goes with the pace of the music. At around (1:11-1:18) there were roughly 11 cuts which showed different things to show the variety of the artists wealth which was the aim of the music video in the first place. The number of cuts in this video sets the mood and can get the viewers more "hype" for this type of music genre.


Sam Smith - WRITINGS ON THE WALL (BAD NUMBER OF CUTS)

Although the music video featured many of the scenes from the film it was made of (Spectre), the movie was an action film which should consist of fast paced editing and action everywhere, however in this music video it was very slow and the number of cuts was really low for such a film as James Bond 'Spectre'.  Each scene lasted about 5 seconds which in my opinion is too high for a film of this genre, the music video should have hyped up the viewers as the film consists of a lot of action. For example the start of the video consisted of the artist who sang the song just standing as the camera zoomed out on him, this for me wasn't appealing as it got quite boring watching further on into the music video as everything was really slow. Looking at past James Bond films id of expected the music video to be cutting oftenly as this would excite audience members as previous films from this franchise has done.





Skrillex and Diplo ft Justin Bieber - WHERE ARE U NOW (GOOD SPECIAL EFFECTS)

In this music video with Skrillex and Diplo featuring Justin Bieber the entire video featured special effects to make it seem that the drawings of fans had been in actual motion of Justin Biebers body. This had to be done via special effects and editing to make it become a visual. the effects had been iconic in this video as this is what people remember when they hear the song. the visuals in this would have taken a few weeks to film whereas the actual editing and special effects added might have taken longer as there was at least 3 drawings per second in this video. The special effects can be seen throughout the video but for an example it can be seen at (2:45) where a fan had drew there own art on the body of Justin Bieber so it could be seen as in motion with the other drawings. This was effective as it intrigued the audience and engaged them. It was also interesting to see both Bieber and Skrillex and Diplo collaborate with each other, this would have had an effect on the music videos visuals as a mix of both would be necessary, so the editing had shown both characteristics of all artists in the video.


Michael Jackson - ROCK WITH YOU (BAD SPECIAL EFFECTS)

This in my opinon had bad special effects as aim of this video i think was to show that the artist (Michael Jackson) was in a dark room with all these neon lights coming from one direction. This did not have any quality as it was clear that the artist was just dancing in a dark room with spotlight lazers going crazy in the background, if it was effectively used with special effects then it wouldn't be as obvious as it was. this can be seen in the video at about (1:56). For an artist such as Michael Jackson the music video would be expected to be of high quality, but watching this video had shown that the special effects weren't though out or planned properly. This for me would put me off watching as it didn't look well thought out and it looked as if no effort was out into the visuals of the video, what could have been improved is if they had at least got a green screen to add some effects onto that.


Josh Turner - YOUR MAN (GOOD CAMERA LANGAUGE)

This video showed good camera language to me as it followed the style of the music video which was narrative. The camera followed both of the two characters throughout the video ad focused on the main key parts of the story. This emphasised what needed to be seen by the viewers so the video would make more sense. The camera language for me also included the viewers in the story as it wasn't still for every scene and went along with the action to show a bit of realism into the video. The use of effective camera language on the audience can be seen at (1:10-1:13) when the two characters were slow dancing the camera was following them with the beat and movement they were doing. This for me showed involved the audience in the same feeling that he two characters were feeling.