Lip-Syncing Exercise: Clean Bandit - Rather Be

Lip-syncing is something that is essential in every music video but is actually one of the hardest jobs throughout the whole shoot day. It requires not only precision but confidence in yourself and your performance in order to convey the style and genre of the song.

Picking someone to lip-sync to any song is a difficult choice so we decided to do a 'tester day' in order to find out who had the right confidence and skills to pull off a long tiring day of lip-syncing and who would be ideal to pick for when we actually get round to choosing a song and lead singer.

On the shoot day, we had three cameras all in different positions: a tracking camera, a camera in front of a green screen and a low shot in front of a sofa. This made us use all of our different skills and also let us start to get used to the camera on tracks which is commonly used in music videos.

Here are some pictures of my friends Katie and Lulu performing in front of the cameras:

We all had to get in front of the camera and have a go at lip-syncing whilst the song was played through a speaker in the recording studio. We used an electric version of a clapperboard by using our teacher's iPad which also helped with setting and linking the times in unison when we were editing. It was helpful to have the start time on screen as this helped us get started in the editing process as we could link the time on the screen to the time on the editing bar. When we had shots without the clapperboard in, we used a significant moment in the song (in our case, a big bass drum noise) to sync everything together. It is useful to know how to edit things like this for when we start our own music videos for the A2 course.

Here is our finished video:



Overall, I felt the task was fairly successful as we learnt all of the basics for when we film and edit our own music video in the next academic year. I am also actually quite proud of everyone in my video and will be using them for my official video next year.

Analysis of Album Covers: Jessie J

Jessie J is a very popular artist in the current pop music industry. This album was released around five years ago. It is obvious that Jessie J and her management want to present her as edgy and slightly 'dark' due to the dark nails, dark lips and dark eye make up. This star image would stereotypically appeal to the 'goth' audience but actually appealed to a much wider audience due to how unique she was.

In this picture on her album cover, she is not smiling and therefore does not present a 'clean-cut' star image. This appeals to the teenage audience as she is seen as rebellious, like a modern day Joan Jett with a present day twist by using the gold writing and jewellery.

The key theme of black and gold in this album cover is reflected in most of her live performances and music videos and presents a 'chav-like' image, hereby appealing to this type of audience. This image makes Jessie J more relatable to younger and more common audiences. 

Jessie J is made to look quite young in this album cover which is also another factor that appeals to a wide audience. This album cover suggests Jessie J is quite synthetic and stylised and hints that the songs on the album are quite 'dancey' and upbeat.

However, in opposition to this album cover, around five years after she released this album, her second album cover looked like this:

This picture for the cover of her album 'Alive' shows a very different star image for Jessie J. Not only is there hardly any back and gold, there is very minimal colour at all. Although Jessie J was doing very well in the music industry, she and her management decided to shave her head for Children in Need which makes her target audience 'fall in love' with her even more as she is shown as kind and selfless. 

In this album cover, she also looks a lot older and seems to have 'settled' into the music industry as a well-established artist. She has such a large fan base that she is comfortable with changing her star image completely and still retaining her wide audience. 

Unlike the first album, Jessie J gives off the impression as a raw and organic artist due to the bare skin and fairly basic make up and no lipstick. The change in font between the two albums is also very drastic as in the first one it is gold and looks almost like a gold chain with her name on which is stereotypical of dance and R&B artists. However, the font on this cover is very swirly in a basic colour which adheres to the image she is presenting about being 'authentic' and 'raw.' 

Overall, these two albums cover suggest that although star image is very important   when you are starting out, it is affordable to change your image to suit the music you are making when you already have such a wide fan base.

Analysis of Music Videos: Stan - Eminem

This video for the song/rap written by Eminem called 'Stan' follows a strong narrative storyline which was actually based on a true story that impacted Eminem's life enough to make him write this song about it.

This video shows a clear star image of Eminem being adored and admired by a fan who does everything just so he can look like him or feel like he is doing his utmost to admire his image such as tattoo the name 'Slim Shady' on his chest. Because we see this fan go completely mentally and physically 'crazy', this shows that the star image being portrayed to him is so 'good', if not 'too good', as the fan loses his mental health and the love for his girlfriend over the love he has for Eminem.

This narrative video adheres to the typical 'story' in similarity to a fairy tale, with a beginning, a middle and an end. At the beginning, there is equilibrium and that is shattered by the fact 'Stan's' girlfriend is unhappy with the way she in being treated. Throughout the piece, as his girlfriend gets more and more unhappy and he becomes more and more mentally unstable, there is un-equilibrium. And finally, to complete the 'story' there is the resolution (the ending) which in this case is not a happy solution but it is a resolution to all the suffering and pain this man felt, as he kills himself. This makes Eminem feel awful about not replying sooner though so it could mean that the situation is not entirely resolved but just passed on to another person i.e Eminem.

We see iconography being used in this by seeing the posters of Eminem all over the fan's basement walls. This actually shows that Eminem's production company/management and Eminem himself do not think highly of fan 'obsessing' over him as it can have disastrous consequences, like is shown in this video when the obsessed fan kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend by driving off a bridge when Eminem does not reply soon enough to his message.

The fact that Eminem himself is not in the video questions the reason why Dido (the featuring artist) is in the video, playing the pregnant girlfriend. This suggests that they did not want the video to completely tell a story throughout with no lip-synching as it is quite a heavy topic, so they made Dido a character in order to break apart the narrative from the song.

This video is very unlike any of Eminem's newer videos which suggests that his star image has changed from being 'thoughtful' and an independent artist to a more mainstream and 'wide-audience-appealing' artist with songs like Love The Way You Lie FT Rihanna. However, this video has a massive impacted on the audience as it tells such a sad story, hereby making sales of the record higher as it appeals to a wide marketing audience.

Media Theorists: Richard Dyer

Analysis of Music Videos: Love is Easy - McFly

McFly are a band that have always presented themselves as very clean-cut but still having a unique element whilst being a typical 'boy band', they still play their own instruments and write their own songs. Their star image seems to appeal to teenage girls and they show this in this video by wearing smart suits and being generally happy and upbeat.

Unlike most videos in the pop genre, McFly are seen to play instruments in this video for 'Love is Easy.' This creates a strong star image as they are being presented as more than just singers but as talented musicians as well.

This picture is from when McFly were at a film premiere, and even then, they were presented as clean-cut and very 'matching' in order to keep their audience happy even when they are not performing their songs with their instruments. However, although they play their own instruments, in this music video, they are not seen to play them the whole way through and hereby adhere to the pop video stereotype.

This video also has examples of intertextuality by referencing films and other music videos. This is not very common in modern pop videos so therefore makes them stand out from other artists. Their inspiration, as quoted by Tom (a band member) was the film 'Love Actually' when everybody started singing 'All I Want For Christmas is You' which shows that this band puts in a lot of effort and thought into making their music and videos which the wide audience find endearing.

Analysis of Music Videos: Bad Reputation - Joan Jett

This video is a classic example of rock music videos across the decades. This video includes all the stereotypes of the whole band playing the actual instruments, including close- ups and wide shots of all the band members. It also includes lots of head-banging and fast movements, hereby creating Joan Jett as a upbeat, anarchistic performance artist and her star image is as a rebellious and careless.

This star image is very typical of rock artists and links to the fact that if Joan Jett presented herself as clean-cut whilst playing this style of music, she would not be as successful as other bands such as the big heavy rock bands.

Joan Jett was already very influential in the rock world as she was sort of the first woman to become famous and a household name from being rebellious and anarchistic. She appealed to a wide audience as the people who already liked rock music liked her, but also people found her more accessible as she was a woman and seemed less scary.

In her younger days, her management decided to present her as shown in this picture. She was seen as always wearing black and mostly wore leather to keep with the edgy style she wanted to be displayed as. This is the same image used in her video. Also, in this picture, in similarity to the video, she is seen with an instrument and that links with the rebellious but talented image they want to put across.

The fact the band is playing almost throughout this whole video is stereotypical of rock music videos as fans of all ages of heavy rock bands draw a connection to every member of the band. This is not just in the rock genre, as bands such as One Direction have a huge fan base because of all of the members, not just one of them who is the star. This band has created a huge fan base by actually being musically talented in the way that they actually play all their own instruments unlike many other artists nowadays.

Analysis of Music Videos: The Man - Aloe Blacc

This video, featuring the solo artist Aloe Blacc, is an obvious example of a narrative video which is set in the late 1960s and has connections with Martin Luther King and the Black Power/Black Pride movement. Unlike most solo pop artists, there is a scene in which a member of his band is playing the trumpet which is not typical of the pop genre.

As this is a narrative video, there are many people in it creating the story of black pride in the 1960s which means they are using intertextuality in order to convey this story. An example of this is at the very end when all of the African American men join arms in Selma at a peaceful protest. This type of message is effective because it shows that Aloe Blacc has something to say about the civil rights movement in America. As this is designed for a current audience, this is a positive impact because it makes people remember what happened and that it wasn't that long ago.

As in his music video, Aloe Blacc is presented in this picture as very wholesome which is because of his management making sure that all of the pictures they put across come across this way to Aloe's target audience. Even whilst wearing this brown shirt, he still gives off the impression of being smart and intelligent whilst still keeping back with his old-fashioned/retro style which he shows in this video.

Everyone is wearing old-fashioned suits and most women have afros which was stereotypical of the time. This use of intertexuality enforces the image that Aloe Blacc is a strong and independent African American who cares a lot about his past. This creates a positive star image as he is shown as proud but still peaceful.

This is a fairly typical type of video to accompany a pop singer as he wants to come across as accessible to a wide audience. Nowadays, the civil rights movement is looked upon in an embarrassing way for White Americans and a proud moment for African Americans therefore suggesting that if anyone had a problem with this video, they would be part of a negative niche.