Music Video - Background

Music Videos

The History:

A music video is a short film, visually illustrating a song by an artist.  Although music videos have been produced as early as the 1920’s, it was in the 1980’s that encouraged music videos to become more popular. The main purpose of a music video is to promote the band. It was this time where videos were becoming known as ‘promotional clips’ or ‘promos’ which allowed artists to promote their music without having to travel internationally to perform live to gain popularity and supporters. MTV was the first channel that was set up to be dedicated to playing music videos. They aired their first music video ‘Radio Killed the Video Star’ in the 80's and with the popularity of the show, have expanded their channel into different music categories for each type of preferred genre. In the twenty first century, it is expected for an artist to release a music video for any up coming track as they have high demands from fans who are interested in that artists have in mind visually for their music. Music videos are produced with artistic intentions. While some are filmed as a documentary or live action, others have a more creative approach and are animated for the enjoyment of the viewers. In Andrew Goodwin’s theory, he states that music videos can either be related back to the lyrics (amplified) or completely ignore them (disjuncture).

How Are Music Videos Produced?

With the advancement of modern technology, music videos are now easier to produce than ever. With equipment and editing software simpler to use, the only limit to create a music video is the budget and imagination.

Included in this list are the key aspects that directors use in the process of the production.

• The Song: Choosing the song is one of the first steps. The construction of the music video is all based around the song and after selected, the directors can start deciding what they are going to do with it visually.
•  Budget: Budget is the main set back while producing a music video. With today’s technologies it is easier to film and edit clips together at a high standard. This should be one of the producer’s first thoughts when planning.  Knowing how much money you have to dispose beforehand ensures that it does not go over budget over the duration of the process.
• Ideas: This is the stage where creativity is introduced. To make a music video successful, it has to be appealing to the band’s target audience and represents their music in a positive light, as well as fitting in with the budget. To gain inspiration, the direction will listen to the track repeatedly, record any ideas onto paper and converse with the band to ensure that they are happy. They will also research what music videos are current, popular and fits the style for their genre while thinking about settings, actors and difficulty of filming. After collecting their findings, storyboards will be created in order to get a clear understanding on how the direction would visually arrange each clip for the video.
• The Team: When the initial ideas are down, the director will start to bring them to life. This is when they start scouting for actors, find their crew and set up the camera arrangements in the selected locations. It is almost impossible to create a music video alone; therefore it is important to have as much support as possible to make it easier.
• Filming: The next step in filming. This includes setting up cameras, getting the actors into the correct space, music, lighting, costumes etc. It's important to be organised as it speeds up the process and wastes less time. The filming can take as little as a few hours or lasts for days; however it's important to get all the shots needed for when its time to edit.
• Post Production: This is when you take all your clips and edit them together with the track to create the ideal music video. It is where you can identity the bad takes from the good takes and filter through them so the best material is used. Although it accounts for hours of work and becomes very tedious, the end product should leave the artists, the director and the label company satisfied. 

From this research, I now understand the history of music videos and their main purpose which is to help promote an artist's music without them having to travel to perform their track live. I have also gained information on how a music video is created and what the vital steps are to ensure that a music video is successfully produced, including the artists ideas as well as the directors. Lastly, I am now aware of the variety of different websites and channels set up especially for music videos to be shared through. These ensure that the artists are able to get their videos played regularly which allows the song to gain popularity and is easy for viewers to watch at any time.