Research and Planning: Chris Applebaum Music Video Director

Chris Applebaum is an American music video director, who has worked with a diverse range of artists, among them American Hi-Fi, Rihanna, Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore, Natasha Bedingfield, Britney Spears. Most of his music videos contain close ups of the artists face and body. He Also uses quick shots or slow smooth shots depending on the tempo of the song. The songs he creates music videos for are mostly hip hop, R'n'B or pop.

These are some of the music videos he has directed:

1. Vanessa Hudgens - "Come Back To Me"
2. The Pussycat Dolls - "I Don't Need a Man"
3. Britney Spears - "Overprotected"
4. Aly & AJ - "Potential Breakup Song"
5. Mary J. Blige - "Just Fine"
6. Rihanna - "Umbrella"
7. Ashley Tisdale - "He Said She Said" (unreleased 1st version)
8. Mariah Carey - "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time"
9. Miley Cyrus - "Party in the U.S.A."
10. Selena Gomez & the Scene - "Who Says"
11. Natasha Bedingfield - "Unwritten"
12. Mandy Moore - "Cry"
13. American Hi-Fi - "Lost"
14. Hilary Duff - "Fly"

Chris Applebaum was born in Los Angeles in 1970. He studied film at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts where he started directing music videos for bands in independent alternative rock scene. After seeing one of his videos MTV offered the 19 year old the opportunity to join their production team in New York City. At the age of 21, Applebaum became the youngest director to sign with satellite films. He directed over 100 videos and got multiple MTV video award nominations. He has had 22 number one videos on MTV helping break artists like Rihanna, Hilary Duff and Kelly Osborne and continue the successful careers of artists such as Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez. In 2007 Applebaum won MTV’s video of the year award for Rihanna’s “Umbrella”. He signed with Believe Media, a production company in 2008 and continued to direct music videos but has also started to direct TV commercials for Covergirl, Hugo Boss and John Frieda.

Source: Wikipedia and http://www.chrisapplebaum.com/bio.html

                      

Research and Planning: Artists

Oxygen by Erica Shine 
 

We looked at this artist's song but we were looking for something more up beat and up tempo so we didn't choose this as our final.

Wake me up by Micron
 

 

We also looked at this song and it is more of a rock type of genre and we were looking to do hip hop/pop music.

Misguided Ghost by Paramore

 

 

We liked the lyrics to this song but we didnt choose it as it is again a slow tempo song.

Research and Planning: Branding and Marketing

In class we looked at how we can brand. Our first task was to brand a 'jaffa cake' or you could say we had to re-brand it as it is already a known product. We found this quite difficult as we already had a name to fit the image beacuse it has been previously marketed. We named it Chocollo as we changed it into a marshmallow and chocolate biscuit/cake, we only had to use the image not what it contained. We then thought about how and where it could be marketed. It could be shown on TV, in magazines, on sandwich boards and social networking sites.

 

When then brainstormed ideas on how to brand an artist and we realised that it would be easier to re-brand an artist. The reason for this is beacuse they come with a known name, representation and audience.

 

We looked at the artist Ed Sheeran as he is a new artist and we looked at how he is being marketed. He has good voice but his label company don't think that his image is very appealing. This is the first music video they created for him:

 



 

In this music video Ed Sheeran is shown to the bare minimum, they only show close ups of his feet and his hands playing the guitar, this creates enigma as to who the artist is. The music label have used an actor who signs out the lyrics to the song and only show glances of Ed Sheeran. It is filmed in black and white which keeps the details about him very low and we don't find out much about him.

A Good Blog

We discussed in class what we thought a good blog should be and this is what we came up with:

Creativity Music Video Project

Our challenge was to produce a music video for the song "Another Brick in the Wall" part 2 by the band Pink Floyd.

 

Lyrics:

We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall. 

 

 

Location ideas 

 

 

Ideas for the mise-en-scène

 

Sound that we could use

 

Camera angles and movements that we could use

 

Ways of editing the music video

 

Ideas for the music video

 

Other music videos that are based around school

Creativity

In class we looked at words that we felt relate to creativity:
- Subjective
- Inspired by (surroundings)
- Unconventional
- 'Outside the box'
- Interpretation
- Experience
- Hard to define
- Variety of techniques
- Original
- Open minded
- Imagination
- Expression
- No rules
- Style
- Process (flexible)

We came up with personal definitions - Creativity is a process which is inspired by sorroundings, feelings and audience and is open to interpretation but has no rules.

Creative desicions can be influenced by previous music videos, artists, real life stories.

Deconstruction of Geri Halliwell - It's Raining Men

This song is pop, musical and it features in Bridget Jones, it uses intertextuality as Fame and Flashdance relate to this and are an inspiration.
- Dance matches with beats in music
- Made to look like New York with cabs
- Camera and music reflect her moves - camera goes down reflecting the lyrics
- Kisses judge - uses sexuality which shows a power shift
- Contrast boxer, ballet dancer - shows dedication and can relate to being a solo artist
- Low angle - makes her seem more superior
-Voyeurism - people outside watching her
- Whilst doing sit ups she has a dog with her which shows realism
- Camera uses close-ups to sell her new image/body after leaving Spice Girls and her clothing is very revealing which supports the Male Gaze (Laura Mulvey).