History of music videos & Monetisation

The History of music videos

                                                                                  
 Bessie Smith- St Louis Blues(1929)

Music videos began in the 1930s, but one of the earliest to date would be singer Bessie smith with st Louis Blues which featured in a two reel short film. A music video at this time was different to a modern day music video,due to the colour still being black and white. although there may be alot of differences the conventions we still similar to modern day for example this a live performance piece and there are different cuts which implies this is a multi-camera production.






The Beatles-Strawberry Fields Forever(1967) 

This music video is based on John Lennon's childhood but the band have portrayed this happy image of a boy band which is still apparent to date and as you can see a change in technology due to the music video being in colour. This music video has a narrative so it automatically appeals to visual audience. Also there is use of hyper reality for example it shows the Beatles walk out in expensive costumes to add a sense of wealth and to want people to have this. This was one of the first msuic videos in colour.




1970s

Videos are started to be considered too salacious. this is because music video makes were under the impression that sex sells, this was favourable as these videos were not expensive to producer but could generate a lot of attention. This was the case for Prince - I Wanna Be Your Lover. This music video still follows conventions, with used of of lips synching , the artist performing the song with their band.


David Bowie-Life On Mars(1971)


This video is effective due to the fact that it is a basic lip sync but the shots and effective props can create conventions for example, his appearance is associated with his stage persona called "Ziggy Stardust" which was Bowie's way of showing Iconography towards his fans so they could act like him and dress like him.  


The Buggles- Video Killed The Radio Star(1981)

This music video was the first ever music video to be played on MTV. The name of the song is self explanatory in the sense that music videos actually ruined the radio star, Artists werent being credited for the way their music sounded but for the way there music video looked. for example Radio was dying out and the only way to gain popularity was to create a music video and become a Movie star
for your music.


Micheal Jackson- Thriller(1983)




In 1983, Michael Jackson, Epic Records and Vestron Video, released the music video for thriller. The video itself, had a running time of 13 mins and was loosely based on the horror film "An American Werewolf in London". Micheal Jackson's Thriller video was unprecedented. This was because it was the first ever music video (By a mainstream artist) to create and use the concept of a short film.



The Police Every Breath You Take



What was important about the 1980s?
In the 1980’s, MTV was launched. MTV was the first music channel to broadcast many different artist’s music videos. The first ever music video which was played on MTV was The Buggles’: Video Killed the Radio Star. The 1980’s was also the era of where short films were introduced in music videos. Michael Jackson was the first artist to have a short film music video, Thriller, which was 13 minutes.

How is it recognisable as a music video?
This music video was released in 1983, which has a total of 299 million views. As the lyrics sound romantic, the song is somewhat disturbing. “Every breath you take I’ll be watching you”. This song is about a hooking stalker. It is always interpreted because of the way it sounds but people do not choose to listen to the lyrics properly. The main artist in the band, Sting wrote this song after divorcing his wife. He personally things the song is “a nasty little song”, “evil” and “about jealousy and surveillance and ownership”. P Diddy sampled this song and named it as I’ll Be Missing You. He wrote this song for the late The Notorious B.I.G Wallace, who was murdered in 1997. 
In the music video for The Police, it is hyper-reality because the music lives within the ash tray. There are effects such as fade ins, and outs and it is in black and white. There is also lip-syncing, for the majority of the video because it is a live performance where you see the band playing instruments and one of the members, Sting singing the song. 


Cultural change in the 1980s. 
The 1980’s was the beginning of globalization, the AIDS epidemic killed 39 million people and the United Kingdom and United States moved closer to the laissez faire. However, this track hit US's Number One and was there consecutive for 8 weeks. 

PSY-  Gangnam Style(2012)
This Music video went viral and is now the most viewed video on YouTube, this video shows conventions of Hypereality by showing things such as Ferrari's and expensive clothing. I would say this video is quite controversial due to the fact that this is South Korea where you are enttiled to be yourself but in the North of Korea its a dictatorship which shows a wide range of contrast between them.

How music videos are Monitised

Method A: Youtube

Method B: Product Placement

Youtube:

There are many ways to monitise a music video, using Youtube is one of them. Youtube is global and world wide, meaning that when a music video is put on there, then anyone can see it.  By placing it on Youtube, it immediately makes the video global and when it gains further popularity, it will become viral.

As the video becomes viral, it makes more money, the more views that the video gets, the more money it gains in profit. If the song has an advert before it, this means that the song will make $2 for every thousand views it gets.

For example, when taking a successful viral music video, such as 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams.

This is the amount of views the video gained.
The artist will only receive 10% of the total earning and the remaining 90% will be for the label that funded the song.

This is also the case for Indie music videos. They are owned and funded by a label and therefore must pay them.

                                                        This is not the case for Self Producers, as they have made and funded for the video themselves, they will keep 100% of all earning and profits made.

Product Placement:
Product Placement is another way of broadcasting and advertising/ presenting an artists music video via promotional mediums, these are mediums such as Television, billboards in the street, Youtube (As already mentioned) and also apps on tablets and phone ect.

It is also a way of advertising other products within a music video, for instance, using a brand of something, such as headphones, this advertises the brand and the product, the label may be paid by the companay of the product to use their product in the video.

• Monitisation:

Refers to the giving of permission to authorise advertisement to be present in your music videos in which you will be charged for. An example is Youtube, YouTube charges advitiser for the advertisement while they share the fees with you, this allows you to make more money in your pocket. however it has some bad points to it as if you add adverts to your video it's more likely to steal, distract and make your consumers sway away from your video causing you to lose consumers and money.
So if you decide to have adverts present in your music video your likely to make $2 per 1,000 views on YouTube.

examples:

This music video by PSY - Gangnam style went viral due to the song and accompanying music video that gather a huge amount of views. This what you have to do to find out how much the record label he is signed to earned and how much the artist himself earned: 

2,646,913,867 divide 1,000 x 2 = 5,293,827.734

(this sum shows how much the Universal music group the label he's was signed to earned from the YouTube views while on the other hand the artist PSY will get 10% of that cut.

This is all because the visual side of the music video is more appreciated more than the actual song as music has become devalued.

In this image it shows an ad (advertising google) that appeared when i started watching the video which like i said will cost $2 per 1,000 views.
Because Youtube is worldwide it allows music videos when uploaded to be seen all over the world giving the video a wide/broad audience gaining the music video and the artist more awareness and popularity. Therefore the more known and viral the video goes it makes more money for the record label and the artist gaining more money in there pockets.

• product placement: 

Product Placement is designed to sell and promote the products of the individual companies in which is usually embedded into a music video. Product placement is basically seen everywhere not just in music videos but on TV, billboards, newspapers, magazines etc. Its known as an advertising technique used by companies to insure the promotion of their own products allowing more awareness of that product.
However there is also another type of Product Placement called:

• Paid Product Placement:

Paid product Placement is when your are given an incentive (money) for you to mention that companies product or brand into your music video, Tv show, film etc...

An example of Product Placement:

In this music video the product placement= is beats which has clearly been placed to advertise the beats pill xl

An example of Paid Product Placement:
In the beginning you have the artist talking about her new sony phone and giving hints to how good it is or some interesting features it has to it.



Monetising Music Videos

Which the birth of the internet and video streaming services, monetising music videos has become even more easier to gain money from videos.
Youtube is one of the key platforms to promote music videos and monetise them. This is because Youtube is a global video streaming platform where things can and have easily go.



Product placement is often used to monetise music videos, this is where big company (such as beats) may pay the artist to have their product in the music video, for example beats headphones is a Miley Cyrus video. This is done because they know that the video will generally bring in big views and it is a good chance to subtly promote their product without being too full on and having to spend mass amounts of money on actual adverts.
It creates more awareness of the product meaning that is not only used in music videos but other media outlets/platforms as well such as news papers, billboards and TV adverts.

In general, monetisation is granting permission for an advertisement to be shown in a music video whether it's a independent or major video. Youtube plays a key factor in this because money can be generated through viewers. For example every 1000 views, equates to $2 if your video has advertisements.

Also annotations are used as a form of pop ups in youtube videos to advertise certain products or events. These are most commonly used to advertise products because they can easily be accessed and directly take you to the actual product.

This is why viral videos are often most successful because they generate views and often have annotations to link them to the artists product, so they have two different sources of income from the video.
An example of this would be Pharrell Happy as it went viral and had 886,126,725 views and also had product placement from beats in the video.

Prep Work 12.09.2016

Prep Work:
Research an exemplar case study of an Artists image by a major or indie artist

Rihanna-

https://leyregranda.wordpress.com/2015/02/05/case-study-rihanna-as-a-brand/

Rihanna is a fashion icon and an idol to many. Due to her good looks and great fashion sense she gains a wide range of attention from fans and other celebrities. Apart from earning money from tours, albums, etc. she has a partnership with Puma, and River Island, where clothes she designed are sold from there. She always has to change her image from time to time so that she is up to or ahead of the fashion because she is a trendsetter. However, some celebrities create a fake representation of who we want to identify them by. In this case, Rihanna decided to use her middle name as her stage name. She does not hide the fact that her real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty because she designed Puma slippers called 'Fenty', which is her last name. The image of Rihanna is what we buy into, because it emphasises the artist. 

Bon Iver
http://archive.jsonline.com/entertainment/musicandnightlife/37848854.html

Bon Iver's Justin Vernon broke up with the band, and started to write songs from his father's cabin in Wisconsin. His image did not change for his viewers or fans as he kept it simple. He uploaded his songs onto MySpace and printed over 500 CD copies for family, friends, etc. Vernon says that the internet played a significant role in his fame and finding a record label because he had an online fanbase where he uploaded songs. He had a 'modest beginning' as he started his solo career broken and emotional. 

Music Video

Followed Title Sequence

Timeline of short film

http://timeglider.com/timeline/e350686fa7c3f66f

Evaluation

Introduction 

For my introduction, I will be evaluating my short film which is called Followed, I was in a group of four, which we all had four roles, which were Director, Director of Photography, Production Manager and Producer. I was the Production Assistant and during planning and organizing, filming, and editing the short film, I have learnt 3 major things throughout this process. The first thing I learnt was that all pre-production work is essential before can go any further (filming). An example of this is if the storyboard is not complete and or does not have up to 25 shots then we are unable to film. This was an issue for us because we only had 6 shots which made it incomplete. In order for us to film, our director of photography had to add more shots to our storyboard for us to film. The second thing I learnt was the producer was in charge of everything, which meant in order for us to actually shoot the producer had to make sure and or ensure everything was done. If the script was not done on time, the producer would have the choice to either fire the director, for example. Lastly, the final thing I learnt was how to work with a team to and complete the short film in a short deadline.

My group's problem solving was good as when we encountered a problem, we solved it quickly. One of these problems were with the incompletion with work. When discussing when to complete them, we were able to finish the incomplete work in a day, which was very effective for us because we were going to shoot the next day. 

Main Body

Before shooting, we had specific documents to complete. For example, because I was the production manager, I was in charge of the risk assessment, props/make up sheet, equipment booking and risk assessment. 

Our shooting schedule was made by the producer and was set out on the dates of when we would of been shooting. Luckily, we shot everything the on same day which left us more than enough time to edit. The reason why we needed a shooting schedule was to make sure everything is shot on time and on the dates that were listed. On the schedule, it has date and time, the location, storyboard shot number, actors and crew, props, costume, make-up and description and the video equipment that is required. 

The storyboard could have been detailed enough to make a 5 minute film if we had more shots included in the shot list. The shot lists on the storyboard was essential because without it, we wouldn't have been able to our desired shots.

The shot list had information which is relative to the script as we will know what shot to use for each scene. The shot list was organised correctly because when we shot the first scene, it was in the same place whereas for example, if the shotlist was in a jumbled up order, it would take more time to keep changing locations rather than shooting. The advantage we had with our shot list is that we only filmed in one location which meant that we had enough time to move around and choose our desired location; because we shot in three different areas by the lake which were quite close to each other.

When picking our location, Southmere lake, we were aware of the lighting and permissions but not the background noise. Sadly, when we were filming one of our scenes, a plane flew directly over us which prevented us from hearing our actors clearly and we were unable to re-shoot the scene again as it would have ruined our shooting schedule. For permissions, we knew that we had to ask for permission to shoot at Southmere Lake, so we emailed the local council for permission and was granted it.

Our actors were rehearsed and organised because they knew the exact date of when we were going to film and came on time. This was a major advantage for us because the actors knew what their roles were and got right into character when we started to film. In my opinion, I think I chose the right actors because the roles suited them well and were able to adjust to any changes. I liked the main character, Lucy because she stayed in character and knew exactly what to do. However, we were unable to get a male actor for Tyler so one of our crew members played him and we made him anonymous. 

We were able to book out equipment which was a dslr camera, tripod, memory card and lights. If we were unable to get lights for our short film we wouldn't have been able to shoot. However, if it came to that situation, we could have used an alternative which would be the lights on our phones. The camera worked perfectly fine and was charged fully as we put the camera to the setting which allowed us to record. The tripod worked with no faults which was to make it wobbly and the lights worked well, even though we had a bit of trouble trying to get it to turn on.


Our call sheets were very effective because it allowed us to make sure our actors will get to set or our meeting point in time. In this case, because we decided to shoot straight after college which meant that we could all meet at one place. We told our actors to meet us outside of the college building at the specific time and they were there. This was good for us because we were all able to get to the location together without having to wait for one of either our crew members of an actor to get there late. If anyone was late this would waste valuable filming time and lighting. 

Conclusion

In my opinion, I think that our production was 85% effective because we had incomplete production work that needed to be completed in order to actually film and do our report. What I would do next time is to ensure that all production work should be completed before the due date to make sure if any of the work is not correct, we will have enough time to re-do or re-submit it. 

Short Film Feedback for Crit

Eunice Gardiner
16.3: M/P editing generally has flow and some techniques like cross cutting. It has one jump cut at the start which breaks the flow – she moves location/and her conversation jumps. Issues with pacing here it is far too conversational and tedious and not tense indulging dialogue and ruining the actual drama – this has no place in the film really and should be done away with. The structure is clear and does has a disruption but not middle or end– there is no twist apparent or shock factor. The footage filmed is incomplete to allow you to be very creative or imaginative or maintain a sense of genre that fits the mood. Sound shows some attempt to work with images with the track but there are clear issues in the mix with the plane overhead and a girls voice over the last scene.

22.3: M Some variety of shots and some examples of framing that use rule of thirds and depth. Some controlled use of low key lighting but uses available sources for some effect. Establishing shot used and some close ups for suspense, mystery or convention. Overall although the shots are steady and have some strengths in use of variety of angles etc there are not enough set ups used to give fluency and consistency to the whole sequence – the shoot is basically incomplete to tell the story or the twist effectively. You could have used non linear editing to show some of this as flashbacks. You production skills lighting, shooting etc are proficient hence Merit but the short film is under produced to be effective in the editing to make the mood or story effective/clear.