"Summer of 69" video ideas

Summer of 69 video ideas on Prezi

Asking the artist's permission

Here is the letter that charlie wrote to Bryan Adams asking if we could use "Summer of 69" for our project.

Here is the reply that Bryan Adams' management team sent back.

Generic conventions of the rock genre

In regards to characters in a rock  video I feel this depends on the type of video. A performance video, which is a rock genre convention also the characters are members of the band with the protagonist conventionally being the band's lead singer or front man. Axl Rose in Guns 'N' Roses "Sweet Child O mine" for example.

 

In a narrative video the characters differ although often the narrative does involve the band either as part of the story or conventionally in a  performance aspect of the narrative video. Bon Jovi's "Have a Nice Day" for example. Another character convention of the rock genre is a female love intrest. The most popular convention involving the love intrest is the protagonist pursuing her, or rejecting her. An example of this is Nickelback "How You Remind Me"

 

The mise-en-scene of a video can also help highlight the conventions of a genre. For example the conventional costume of a rock video is; jeans, leather and denim jackets along with vests, for men  in the video. The costume for women is similar as they also wear jeans and often vests, the key difference is the women's clothing is more revealing and tighter fitting. This sexualisation is there to make the video appeal to the genre's target audience, which I feel is men aged 16 and over. Another similarity between the male and female costume is that they are both relatively dark colours. Again "Sweet Child O Mine", "Have a Nice Day" and "How You Remind Me" are good examples of meeting these conventions.

   

 

                                                       

The conventions when it comes to lighting is the same as characters, it depends on the video. A convention of performance video lighting is that the lighting reflects the mood and themes of the song, "How You Remind Me" by Nickelback for example has a very dark theme to it, love, rejection and manipulation, and the lighting reflects this. The lighting itself is low key and gives a bleak atmosphere and although the majority of the video is performance based there are narrative aspects and again in these scenes the lighting still reflects the themes of the song. The best example is that all the narrative scenes are bathed in a grey, low key hue, which to me has connotations of isolation and rejection.

     

This is a contrast to the conventions of a narrative based video as in these the lighting suits the location as oppose to the themes. For example in "Have a Nice Day" the majority of the video is the members of  the band in various locations across a city spotting the cover for the album "Have a Nice Day". So to suit these locations the video uses natural light and high key lighting, which has connotations of a lively upbeat atmosphere.

         

Much like lighting the acting we see in a rock genre music video is down to the type of video used. In a performance video the facial expression and body language we see conventionally is expressions and gestures that emphasises the band's love of performing. An example of this convention is the band smiling and the singer gesturing to the audience to emphasise that he or she is at ease on stage and wants to involve the audience as much as possible A good example of this is Jon Bon Jovi in "Have a Nice Day". The alternative convention to this is that the singer and band are so focused on and engrossed by their performance that their facial expressions are more serious and their body language is tense. I feel this still shows the band's love of performance as the tense body language and facial expressions to me have connotations of passion for what their doing. A good example of this type of acting from a singer is Axl Rose from Guns 'N' Roses in "Sweet Child 'O' Mine.

         

   

In a narrative video the acting not only show the emotions of the performer they also show the performance of a protagonist who often is not part of the band they also conventionally help emphasise the themes and the affect these themes have on the protagonist whether he is part of the band or not. For example in the video to "How You Remind me" by Nickelback the video has narrative and performance aspects with the band's singer Chad Kroeger as the protagonist. In the performance scenes of the video he follows the acting convention of tense body language to highlight his passion for performing and his focus. However in the narrative scenes his facial expressions follow the convention of helping to express the themes of the song, which in the case of "How You Remind Me" are love, rejection and the pain these things can cause, and Kroeger's facial expressions reflect this.

         

The convention for make up in the rock genre is basic make up and all the videos I have shown here follow this convention. However the sub genres of rock don't follow this convention, in some cases having more make up has become a convention of the sub genres. For example "Glam Rock" bands often wear more make up than usual. KISS are an example of this. Another example of a make up convention in a rock sub genre is that in "Punk Rock" they wear a lot of hair product and extra make up. Green Day for example.
          


The most popular props in a rock video are musical instruments, which I feel makes them the most widely used convention of the genre. All the videos I have shown here follow this convention, other than the instruments widely used props are accessories for the costume such as bandannas, sunglasses or necklaces and again all three videos follow this convention. I also feel that bands use a prop so often it becomes their specific convention. Slash's top hat or Jon Bon jovi's white microphone stand for example.

           

In a rock video the locations depend on the type of video and often the lyrics and theme of the song. In a performance based video there are several conventional locations such as rooftops, underground clubs, stadiums or theatres. Another popular choice for a rock video is not to have an audience present for the filming of the performance, the video for "Sweet Child 'O' Mine" is an example of this. The "Sweet Child 'O' Mine" video also follows the location convention of filming the video in a studio. The other videos I've shown also follow location conventions. The video to "Have a Nice Day" ends in a theatre and the video for "How You Remind Me" regularly cuts back to Nickelback performing in a club. "How You Remind Me" and "Have a Nice Day" also follow conventions for narrative video locations. In this case telling the story in an urban area.

Iconography is images you associate with something. Conventions of iconography in a rock video are having a stage or the band members having long hair. In the videos I've shown some of these conventions are met for example all of the Nickelback band members have long hair in "How You Remind Me" as do all of Guns 'N' Roses in "Sweet Child 'O' Mine".  However "Sweet Child 'O' Mine" challenges the convention of having a stage and instead the band perform on the floor of the studio, where as the other two videos do follow the conovention as they involve stages. Overall I feel the most popular image of the rock genre is the electric guitar, making it one of the most widely used conventions of the genre. This is a convention all the videos shown here follow.

        


An entirely narrative based video is rare in the rock genre with the most popular choices for a video being either performance based or a cross between performance and narrative. However the conventions of an entirely narrative based video is for the narrative to be linear and to reflect the themes of the song, love or over coming adversity for example. In a cross over video the convention of a linear narrative is often challanged. "How You Remind Me" is an example of challenging this convention as the narrative regularly jumps between flashbacks of Chad Kroeger and the "love intrest" to the band performing before then jumping forward to Kroeger rejecting the woman. The video for "Have a Nice Day" does follow the convention of a linear narrative with band members been seen in an urban area surronded by images of the album cover the song comes from before the video finally ends with Bon jovi performing. Overall I feel an entirely performance based video doesn't have a narrative.
       


The conventional themes of a rock song are love and passion, rejection, over coming adversity and nostalgia. All three videos I've shown use these conventional themes. The themes of "Sweet Child 'O' Mine"  are love and nostalagia and the lyrics reflect this "her hair reminds me of a once safe place" for example. similarly The themes of "How You Remind Me" are love rejection and the pain those feelings can cause, the lyric "I'm sick of sight without a sense of feeling" emphasises this. Finally "Have a Nice Day" follows the conventional theme of over coming, which in this case I feel is economic hardship. "Looking for forgivenes and what's left to believe" is a lyric that best highlights this I feel.

Conventionally editing in a rock video has a relatively quick tempo with fast cuts and examples of invisible editing. Another editing convention is to cut from a black and white shot to colour, "Sweet Child 'O' Mine" follows this convention. Also conventionally the editing can be used to help reflect the themes of the song as well. For example in the narrative based scenes of the "How You Remind Me", the pain of the protagonist is emphasised by the slower pace of the editing and then speeding up again on the more upbeat performance based scenes.

Conventional camera shots for a performance based video are wide angle shots that focus on the whole band, as well as shots that focus on the band's leading members, which in the case of Guns 'N' Roses are Slash and Axl Rose. Conventional ways of doing this are with mid shots and close ups of the performer from various angles, as well as having conventions on how to film a specific band member. For example a popular way of filming the singer is to use a tracking shot of the singer moving up and down stage or a close up of the lead guitar playing during a solo. One convention of camera work in a performance video that "Sweet Child 'O' Mine" doesn't follow is shots of the audience to establish that it's a live performance. This is because there isn't an audience there during the video, which also challanges a convention of a performance based video. This is a convention that the videos to "Have a Nice Day" and "How You Remind Me" follow this convention as thier is an audience in the performance based scenes of the videos and thier are examples of establishing shots of the audience during these scenes.
      


For a narrative video or narrative based scenes of a video the camera shots have a more ciniematic feel and therefore have similar conventions. For example tracking shots of the protagonist moving down a street and close ups of female actors to help entice the target audience which I feel is men aged 16 and over.  In the video to "Have a Nice Day" a convention that is challanged is to only focus on the frontmen of the band as throughout the narrative scenes of the video all members of the band are tracked across an urban area before being all together for the performance when the video reverts to the convention of focusing on the band's front men, Jon Bon jovi and Richie Sambora.

            

Chosen song- Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams

I got my first real six-string
Bought it at the five-and-dime
Played it 'til my fingers bled
It was the summer of '69

Me and some guys from school
Had a band and we tried real hard
Jimmy quit and Jody got married
I shoulda known we'd never get far
Oh when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Ya - I'd always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life

Ain't no use in complainin'
When you got a job to do
Spent my evenin's down at the drive-in
And that's when I met you yeah

Standin' on your mama's porch
You told me that you'd wait forever
Oh and when you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life

Back in the summer of '69

Man we were killin' time
We were young and restless
We needed to unwind
I guess nothin' can last forever, forever, no

And now the times are changin'
Look at everything that's come and gone
Sometimes when I play that old six-string
I think about you, wonder what went wrong

Standin' on your mama's porch
You told me it would last forever
Oh and when you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life

Back in the summer of '69

We felt this was a good idea because It sticks to a genre we both know it follows conventions of the rock genre for example lyrics about love and guitar solos. The length of the song fits the set criteria fairly well as it's only three and a half minutes long, and I feel we have enough ideas to use the time well. Finally it's a song we both know and really like so learning the lyrics and ques won't be an issue and when it comes to performing makes more comfortable using it.

One idea for the video is to start with a tilt shot going up a guitar on the line "first real six string" before going to a mid shot of me holding the guitar. We then cut to a school music practice room stood like a band and each time you hear a member quit the band you edit that person out. Til it's just the singer left.
Then we fade into a close up of photos in an album that we will make. before then cutting to me and a woman having a heart to heart on the opening lines of verse 4 before fading back to me on the photo album. The final scenes would be performance based one verse set in a studio or practice room and the other with me nursing the old guitar sat on a bridge.     

My group

We have chosen are group for the music video project. My group consists of.

Henry Inman and Charlie Bradley 

Early song ideas

Here is a prezi showing my early song ideas and the advantages and disadvantages of  using them in a music video.

Early song ideas on Prezi

1st music video analysis: Bon Jovi - You Give Love A Bad Name

   

Released in 1986,   "You Give Love a Bad Name" is the 1st single from Bon Jovi's 3rd  album "Slippery When Wet" and was the band's 1st video to be shown on MTV as well as being thier 1st US number 1. Thier genre is rock or "glam rock". The song tells us of a man's pain at how a woman he loves has treated him this is made clear in the song's opening lyrics "Shot through the heart and your to blame darlin you give love a bad name".  

The video itself is performance based. This is emphasised straight away by the panning shot moving from the audience to the stage, then having the stage lights come up and the band begin to play.The video stays performance based throughout this I feel is to show how much Bon Jovi enjoy performing live this is evident when you look at/ more the band's greatest hits for example the videos for "Livin On a Prayer" and "Bad Medicine"are also performance based  The audience aspect of the show are also emphasised straight away by the fact the diegetic audience cheering is the first thing you hear. The audience are then refered to a couple more times through mid shots during the rest of the video the connotations of this are that the audience are enjoying themselves and the denontations are they are fans of Bon Jovi. The use of the camera in this way also shows us a convention of the genre, as the camera reguarly shows female members of the audience in revealing clothes. With regards to the camera work on stage the camera mainly focuses on the singer (Jon Bon Jovi) and the lead guitaurist (Richie Sambora). 

I feel this is because these two are seen as the band's leading pair, so they would want Richie and Jon to be seen as much as possible. I also feel that they're emphasised because I think that a performance video limits the amount of camera shots you can use. For example close ups of the band members and tracking shots of Jon moving up and down stage are used frequently. The visuals do suit the song overall, especially the opening section where you here this extremly powerful chorus followed by pyrotecnics the pace of the editing fits the song as it is relatively quick throughout, however, although the editing fits the pace of the instrumentals it doesn't really fit the lyrics as it is more upbeat than the song suggests. Another   thing that doesn't fit the lyrics is the fact the band's facial expression. For example the lyric "your very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye" I think should have a stronger facial expression but the band focus more on showing people they are enjoying being on stage and performing. Also the performance aspect of the video  highlights a convention of the rock genre, the recklessnes of the performers. This is shown when Jon throws his guitaur into the audience at the end of the opening guitaur solo then starting to sing. 

Despite the limitations performance videos are a convention of the rock genre another example is Guns 'N' Roses "Paradise City" 

Other conventions of the rock genre are met in the video such as the fact the costume for it is leather trousers, leather jackets or in Jon's case a denim jacket. Also the band's costume is more flamboyant than other rock band's costume because Bon Jovi are also classed as a sub genre called "Glam rock" which is why the costumes are as in your face as they are. The tassels on the leather jackets and the big hair cuts for example, the glam rock genre is also why the band's wearing slightly more than basic make up  more eye liner for example. Other glam rock bands include Aerosmith and KISS.Another rock genre convention is that the main theme of a song is love or passion, this is also the theme in "You Give Love a Bad Name" feel the lighting of the video helps suit this theme as the whole stage is in a dark red colour. Red has connotations of love and passion.  Other than that another convention the lighting meets is the use of pyrotecnics. I feel that suits the song as it is the first glimpse of the band before the main lighting comes up, but also the opening lyrics are loud and fairly aggressive, this also links in with the performance video idea because the opening grabs the audience's attention straight away and the pyrotecnics help with this. This is also why Bon Jovi often open thier live shows with "You Give Love a Bad Name".           

Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

1. A website homepage for the band;

2. A digipak for the album's release;

3. A magazine advertisment for the digipak