have knowledge of lighting techniques and how to achieve them
be flexible in order to adapt ideas instantly
be able to take decisions quickly
know about photography and moving image
have creative and artistic vision
pay precise attention to detail
have good colour vision
be able to give and accept direction
have excellent communication skills
be diplomatic and tactful when working with cast and crew
What do DoPs do?
DoPs are key Heads of Department on film productions and theirs is one of the major creative roles. They provide a film with its unique visual identity, or look.
They must discover the photographic heart of a screenplay, using a variety of source material including stills photography, painting, other films, etc.
They create the desired look using lighting, framing, camera movement, etc.
During filming, they also work closely with the Gaffer (who runs the lighting team), the Production Designer, Costume Designer, and the Hair and Make-up Department.
During preparation DoPs also test special lenses, filters or film stocks, checking that the results fit with the Director's vision for the film.
On each day of principal photography, DoPs and their camera crews arrive early on set to prepare the equipment.
On smaller films, DoPs often also operate the camera during the shoot.
Music videos use all sorts of styles and involve lots of techniques. These styles and techniques usually differ depending on the genre and sometimes the artist.
First of all, in the music video for 'Take On Me' by a-ha (Directed by Steve Barron) is considered to be a Pop song and follows many of the typical styles a Pop song would. For example the lead singer is featured prominently throughout the video as a character as opposed to using an actor for the role and he is also seen to be singing the song too which creates an image of him as the 'main' member of the group.
There is a link between lyrics and visuals in this video which are either very clear or very vague depending on how you look at it. The video shows a woman who is dragged into what seems to be a fictional world in a comic book and there is a love story between her and a character from the book. So as I see it the lyrics are also telling a love story so they link with the video in that respect however they do not specifically tell the same story except for in the chorus with it saying "Take on me, Take me on" because the woman in the video is taking on the character from the comic book into her own life, this is clearly seen in the final sequence of the video when he is drifting between the comic and real life in her apartment and he eventually settles in real life.
The relationship between the music and visuals is very clear as the video tends to cut to the beat of the song for the majority of the video and the pace of the music does directly effect the pace of the video. For example, at the start of the video the visuals are frequently changing and are doing so to the beat of the song however as soon as the lyrics start and the beat slows down there are less cuts and the shots are more drawn out. Also, during instrumental parts of the song the instruments being played are shown, for example later on in the song when there is a piano being played there is a shot of the male character playing the piano and in other parts of the video other members of the group are shown playing their instrument e.g. guitar.
The record label behind the artist tries to sell the artist as a product of their own in this video. The lead singer displays an image which would, at the time, appeal to girls as attractive and could also appeal to boys as 'cool' which meant there would be a wider audience/fan base for the group and the song which means more of an income for the record label backing them. This was the first big video for a-ha so their image was not necessarily set when this was released however in future videos the same look and style was used. The members of the group kept the same look they had in this video however, while the videos were similar, their next big hit 'The Sun Always Shines On TV' had little narrative and focused on showing the group playing as a band which still very much put forward their specific image as a product.
This music video is mostly narrative based as it tells a story throughout and is only a small part performance based as it contains small segments of the band playing their instruments. This video also uses animation, which is a popular technique but not as often used as often used as many other techniques. Animation in music videos, especially at the time 'Take On Me' was released, would make it stand out among other videos by other artists as it was very unique. This sort of animation even became a sort of trademark for a-ha as it featured in 2 more of their videos in the future.
Bands such as The Gorillaz used animation heavily throughout their career as every one of their music videos featured animation. They even had animated characters who would act as members of the band in place of the actual musicians:
'Paradise City' by Guns N' Roses is another good example of styles of music video. Guns N' Roses are in the Rock genre which is very different to the Pop genre a-ha are part of. The video for 'Paradise City' includes many characteristics which would be considered as stereotypes for a rock music video. For example the band are clearly shown playing their instruments. Also the video has a very fast paced editing style to match the fast pace of the song.
In this video there is no relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as the video purely consists of in-concert footage and backstage footage of the band. This video is 100% performance-based. However the relationship between the music and the visuals is very prominent as throughout the entire video the editing is done so that the shots change along with the beat of the song. The pace of the music does effect the pace of the video which is clearly seen as towards the end of the video, when the song is at its quickest, the cuts between shots are rapidly changing, faster than they had before in the video however the pace is constantly fast so the video is always cutting very quickly.
Similarly to 'Take On Me', 'Paradise City' heavily features the band in the video. They are shown playing live during a concert which would promote the band to the audience as a band they should go and see live which could increase ticket sales for live shows they do. The other footage which is used in the video is footage of the band backstage and out of the concert supposedly in their own time. Even in this footage they still display their usual 'rocker' image which is a large amount what appeals to their audience. The band having this image even when they aren't performing creates the idea that this is their real image and not just something they put on. Throughout the whole video there are many close ups of each member of the band which is because they are a product and the video needs to sell so showing them would help that.
'Writing's On The Wall' by Sam Smith is a good example of music videos linking with outside products such as Film & TV. The song was created for the film 'Spectre' and the video links with the film to promote this. For example, clips from the film are shown throughout the music video. Sam Smith is also dressed similarly to how James Bond would and he is shown singing in locations from the film.
In this video for 'Anaconda' by Nicki Minaj there is very much a reference to the notion of looking. All the females in the video are on a sexual display to the audience due to their costume which is very revealing and doesn't cover up very much and the also because of the choreography used in the video as it focuses on sexual parts of their bodies. The camera angles and shot types used in the video force the audience to look at these parts as there are frequent close ups. All of this was most likely used to draw attention to the video because many people would want to see what it is showing them.
In conclusion, the content of music videos very much depends on the genre of the song the music video is made for and each genre has it's own set of characteristics which tend to appear in the majority of videos which fit that genre. The videos used in this essay very much demonstrate this as they all have very different styles and techniques used in each of them.
5/10/15 - Monday
In this lesson Me, Taylor, Jess & Ben began to work on 'Money for nothing' which is Task 1 of our assignment. For this task we have to make a presentation informing people of the purposes of music videos. To do this, in the lesson, we created a presentation on Prezzi. As a group we sat together and did research on the different purposes, working together to decide what we should/shouldn't include in our presentation. We tried to include to most relevant and the most interesting information we could by picking out ideas from the research and also putting forward ideas ourselves.
When Josh, an ordinary boy, discovers a strange object in his cereal he thinks nothing of it. Little does he know it is of very valuable information to a gang of criminals. Josh is now unknowingly a target of this gang and has got himself into danger he must try to avoid.
