Reserch blog: music video conventions

 Today I started researching my music video. After a lot of thought, and going through many songs, I have finally found the song that I want to do. The song I chose to do is called "departure" from the Japanese artist "Masatoshi ono". It is a J-pop song that different from regular American ones.

Cams

Many of the camera shots in J-pop videos, were pan where it swept the whole scene and took in the whole band. if it was just a single artist it would just be them. There were also high angle shots overtaking the whole scene from above where you could see almost everything. there were also close ups, highlighting the lead singers face, what they were doing and how they were acting. lots of the music videos had wide shots where you could see all of the scenery depending on where the video took place. All of the music videos took place in different areas so there where different shots each time. the music video shots didn't have a lot of zooming sequences because they wanted to focus on the artist. Once in awhile The music video would have an over the shoulder shot of the actor but not a lot because there weren't many scenes as such. there where eye level shots where you could see the where an artist looked as if it was the emotional turning point in the scene. All these shots make the music video seem crazy and wild but would all fit together. 

sound

With the J-pop genre they don't add any other sounds. sometimes the music would crescendo but other than that it was mainly the music. There wasn't really an ambient sound because they didn't have any story in the scenes. The music starts out with piano then it moves onto loud pop music to give it the effect of the everything starts of soft then goes on to hard and loud. The music and lyrics match to fit out it goes.  A lot of the time the music in the video doesn't go with how the plays out. The lyrics have there own meaning which when reading it tells a different story. the sound overall is good, mostly focus on the music and lyrics of the song.

clamps

costumes- Costumes are either clothes you would any person wearing, of a very big and elaborate. the costumes tend to either  be colorful and vibrant, or dark and dreading. Still, they all follow to be big and  have its own unique touches. No two costumes can be two similar. 

lighting-The lighting is bright and colorful, lots of flashing lights that pop out. The occasional spot light would follow the lead singer and their movement. other lights would follow other members in the group, unless it is a solo artist. A J-pop music video would almost always have dramatic flaring lights.

Acting- Any type of in any J-pop music video is rare. the artist mostly focuses on singing unless the song was emotional. If the song had many emotions and crescendos and decrescendos the artist would act as if the world has gone down and that everything was ending. Other songs where the artist acting happy and celebrating with there friends. Most of the music videos the artist were just performing there songs while singing and dancing. Acting isn't really as big as in J-pop music. 

makeup- The makeup was flamboyant and big. it was similar to art and was well defined. make up is defiantly important to the video. they want the artist to be the main focus as much as possible and have them look amazing. lots of eyeshadow and blush is used along with eyeliner. the makeup usual matches the outfit and setting so it doesn't look out of place with other. the main singer would have the most dramatic make, and any background musicians would have and average amount still with style different from the main singer. 

props- Props are important in these music videos. They aren't used a lot but a lot of it is in the background. The props help to create the scene and how it will look. Most of the props used are everyday objects like phone and chairs to help with there performance. I don't really see a lot in how they use the props other than background. 

setting- The setting tends to change through out each J-pop video. One scene will be the band in a room with the instruments just playing and singing while the other could be them walking and speaking to each other. The scenes can also go from inside to outside, meaning that they will be inside of a room the it would change settings to an outside setting in the woods or forest. It could also be in the city with the artist walking and singing.

editing

The edits in the J-pop music videos' include a lot of jump cuts, cutting from different scenes quickly moving. Lots of the videos fade into the video and fade out at the end. It supposed to add dramatic effect to the video. There are also eyeline matches that help it really focus in on something. The editing isn't really there, its mostly just a lot of cut scenes moving from the different clips. There aren't really any animation edits that would be expected. It seems like the video is trying to focus on the artist and what their doing rather than having many edits that would make the video random and take away focus from the main point, which is the artist.