Timeline for Music Video

0:00-0:32
Alien ship lands, alien steps out, walks down a street, and explores. Few short shots of band in the room.

0:32-1:08
Band performs. Shots are very close up, and in the bands face. Intercut with short parts of narrative.

1:08-1:17
Narrative. Alien attempts to interact with people. Dog barks at him and scares him.

1:17-1:53
Band performs again. Intercut with narrative shots: after seeing two people making out the alien attempts to make out with a guy he sees and gets hit in the face.

1:53-2:11
Alien is sitting on a doorstep, head in hands, when a hand comes in shot holding a contract, and the alien signs it.

2:11-2:29
Alien is immediately seen dating supermodels, signing autographs and being on the fronts of magazines.

2:29-2:33
Lyric: "Beastie Boys known to let the beats.......mmmm drop?" alien's supermodel gf drops a pill in his mouth while he holds a beer in his hand.

2:34-2:52
Band performs intercut with shots of alien drinking, doing different drugs. Quite fast paced editing.

2:52-3:10
Introduction of the third strand: band in the room doing things like fighting with lightsabers, shooting blasters, doing the robot and posing like fictional characters and in action poses, stuff like that. Magazine covers of alien pop up with him doing drugs, getting drunk, doing stupid things.

3:11-3:31
Alien stumbles down the street, remembers his ship, and runs back through the streets. He gets to where he arrived and beams himself back onboard. The cockpit of the ship is revealed to be the room the band was performing in.

Music Video Conventions

A music video is used for promoting a band, but it can also be thought of as a brand targeted for mass consumption. The bands or artists talent is showcased through the performance, dancing or musical creativity. The video that matches a track often reflects the mood of the song, as well as the image of the band. By using a thematic element that matches the band's image, the audience will be able to relate to them by adding other ideas about the narrative into the structure of the video. Music videos often conform to the use of three strands; the narrative, the performance of the band, and a third enigmatic strand where the band does something separate from the performance which is surprising to the viewer. Usually this third strand shows the band in a quirky, personal light disregarding realism. To give a greater sense of the rhythm of the song, the video is often edited to match the pace. If the mood of a song is more sombre then paler colours will be used but a faster paced and upbeat song may contain brighter colours.

Research and Development

Feeling most confident about the idea of the Beaste Boys track, we decided to use it for the video. Watching several other videos of the Beastie Boys, it was clear that the band aims to create a spoof as well as a tribute to older content, for example, Sabotage is a tribute to low budget 70's American cop shows, and their own music video of Intergalactic is a tribute to old Japanese monster movies like Godzilla. I came up with the idea as a way of making a tribute to sci-fi films like 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and 'E.T.' with some elements of 'Star Wars' and 'Star Trek' in the performance, as well as mocking society for its obsession with fame and success, and how easy it is for someone with little talent to become famous.
The idea came from a Good Charlotte video of the track 'I Just Wanna Live' where the band, dressed as different foods, become famous but quickly end up very unpopular for various reasons.

Music Video Ideas

Idea 1.
Extreme - He-man Woman Hater

Narrative: At first there is a solo (1:40), similar to 'flight of the bumblebee' so there is an overhead shot of a fly buzzing around a bar. As soon as the solo ends, the fly is killed and the band is seen hanging around in the bar, drinking, playing pool, chatting up barmaids etc.
During the chorus, the band is on stage playing the song. At the end of the video, the band drinks up and leaves the bar laughing, and the lights turn off.

Idea 2.
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic

Narrative: Alien lands on earth and explores. Soon lands a movie role, record deal etc. and gets famous very quickly. He is seen in magazines dating supermodels and going out, but is shown taking drugs and drinking so becomes unpopular, goes on a downer and leaves the planet.
Performance: Three band members rapping in a set room in the studio. The room is silver with computer terminals and lights. The band themselves are wearing silver jumpsuits with their own things (caps, chains etc.) This room turns out to be the inside of the alien ship at the end.

Idea 3.
Stay Together for the Kids - blink-182

Narrative: Young couple with a small girl are living in a dirty little apartment. The parents often fight and the girl is caught up in the arguments making her constantly upset. One day when her parents return home fighting they leave the door open and don't realise that the girl leaves the house. Straight after she wanders into the road and there is an accident. After the girl is admitted to hospital, the parents fight some more but inevitably have to be there for eachother in the time of despair. When the girl returns home, she is in a wheelchair with a cast on he leg and bandages around. Her parents give her presents and welcome her home and shes happy, and the parents are as well.
Performance: The band plays in one of the small rooms of the apartment.

The Five Stages of Production

1) Research and Planning
In order to create a realistic music video idea, everyone had to do some research into other artists and their videos. This stage is important as it helps us direct our video towards our target audience. In doing research we can also find the bands star image, which acts as another way to appeal to our audiences.

2) Pre-production
Pre-production involves the planning of the music video. This includes getting the performers, planning the video and what happens within the time of the song, deciding shot types, as well as getting any costumes or props that would be needed.

3) Production
This is the shooting of the video.

4) Post-production
At this stage the footage is edited and fitted to the music. After effects are often used for many features of the video that would not be possible through the use of props. If a greenscreen or bluescreen is used while filming a backdrop may be inserted in the video.

5) Distribution and Exhibition
The distribution and exhibition of the video after the video has been fully edited and finished. Distribution involves the advertising of the video, and getting the film known in the world, while exhibtion is how and where the video is shown.

A2 Course Intro