Lip Syncing- What Is It and It's Importance?

Lip syncing is a technique that allows for artists to "mine" along to a backing track. This needs to be professional because if it is not, it makes the whole music video look awful and will have a negative impact on the video meaning its going to have a negative impact on the artist. They do this because they can make the sound sound better than it does if they was just to sing it out in the open whilst making the video.

 

Lip syncing is the process of making lip movements match with a sound that is either being sung or spoken. It can also include the actions of playing an instrument.

Lip syncing is used in virtually all music videos, however some choose not to include it. It is used in music videos as normally in music videos, when the artist is playing a role, it can be difficult for him/her to do the required actions for the narrative and sing at the same time, so he/she just lip sings it and the producers will put the song over it when editing the video.

Despite this, there are downsides to lip syncing, as if somebodies lip movements do not match the lyrics at the exact same time, it can look very unprofessional.

I needed to look into lip syncing and be clear of what it means and is so that when it comes to making our music video, we can pull of this act successfully in order to make our video look as professional as possible.

Here is an example of lip syncing in the song "Rude". As you can see he does it quite well and as an audience member you do not even notice him doing it.

In Depth Analysis of a Video From Your Chosen Genre

For this task I will be analysing a music video. The video I will be analysing will be “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter”.

Bad Day-

The reasoning for me choosing this music video to analyse is because it is of the same genre of the artist we have chosen to use for our music video. It is the genre of ‘pop’ and e is similar to James blunt. By analysing this music video it is going to mean we might see certain characteristics of the genre within music videos which we might want to use within ours. It also may give us ideas of the style of the music video we use.

 This music videos follows the Todorov theory however it starts at the second stage and ends on the first. So it starts with a problem but ends happy. The narrative is about a man and a women who are going through their day to day life and they are both not happy. They then end up meeting each other towards the end and it turns out to be a happy ending.

 What I liked about this music video is that at the start, it showed the life of the people using three different shots of the same action showing that they are doing the same thing every day. For example they would leave their flat and this shot would repeat 3 times in a row but with different costumes so the audience realise what is going on. This example was shown about 30 seconds into the video however there are more examples beforehand. This could be done by our group when we come to make our music video because we are capable of doing that using the equipment we have. I think it also brings something different to the music video as not many artists have used this.

 

 

 

 

The lighting for this music video uses natural lighting which connotes to the audience that what is happening is quite real meaning you can relate to the music video and understand it. For example you might have had days like this when it is not going to well.

Unlike the music video “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt, the character is not played by the artist however Daniel Powter is shown in the clip lots of times in order to promote himself by the audience knowing who he is. He is shown performing a variety of instruments whilst singing.

The editing of this music video is good because it uses split screens. I think this is good because the split screens help to show the audience that time is passing through because again she is doing the same action over and over again which looks like different days. For example in the picture below it shows a triple split screen of her doing her make up making it seem like three days have passed so the audience know the same thing is happening every day and it connotes she might be bored of life.

In conclusion of this music video, I think they used the editing really well and it has given me some ideas of what I could incorporate within our music video.
 

In Depth Analysis of a Video From Your Chosen Genre

For this task I will be analysing a music video. The video I will be analysing will be “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt.

You’re Beautiful-

The reason for choosing this video to analyse is because it is by the same artist which we are using when we make our music video. This means that by analysing this it could help me find generic conventions within this genre. If I can see these conventions it would give me ideas for our own music videos and means we could add them in.

The genre of this music video is classified as ‘Pop’. This artist is particularly known for this genre and may also be categorised into ‘Pop Rock’. The narrative is about James seeing a girl on the Subway and immediately falling in love. However James does not ever see her again so he starts to feel lonely and vulnerable. James then starts to take his clothes off and then jumps in the sea.

James was shown to be lonely by the use of the different camera shots. For example in the shot below, he is standing on his own in a cold environment which connotes how he is feeling. A long shot is used so that you can see the big environment he is in making him look smaller.

 

The lighting within this clip is natural and this gives the audience a realisation that the video they are watching is real and the audience can relate to his problems. This lighting is shown throughout the video as there is not a variety of different shots. As an audience member this video confused me slightly because the narrative didn’t seem very interesting therefore lost my attention.

The character in this video was played by James Blunt himself which might have been to try and promote his self as an artist. Stereotypically in a music video the artist will be in the music video so he has followed this as well. By the artist appearing in the music video it will mean they can promote themselves because audiences will know who he looks like now and will recognise him in the future.

The editing for this clip showed little cuts and ran the whole way through without stopping. This is another way we could film our music video however I personally don’t like it because it tends to be quite boring. If you run straight through it is going to mean you are not going to see a variety of locations.

 

This picture above is the most exciting shot within this video as it is the first time he has moved from sitting on the cliff singing. Usually I would be able to screenshot lots of pictures in the video however if I done this with this video, they would be the same shot.

I have been fairly critical to this music video because I think when it comes to making our music video, it needs to be more exciting for audience members or it needs to give them something to look at. I think it seemed like a lazy attempt at making a music video because he’s just stood in front of a green screen and sang. I think this music video had the chance to be good as the song was popular however the video let the song down a bit.


 

Analysis Of a Music Video Using Goodwins Theory

For this blog post I will be using Goodwin's theory in order to analyse a music video. The song I will be analysing is "Changing" by Sigma ft. Paloma Faith. I have chosen this song because this is a relatively new song to enter the charts and I wanted to find out if modern music videos will still use this theory in order to help them make it.

The relationship between lyrics and visuals-
For this video, I had to watch it two or three times before noticing any lyrics matching the visuals. However, I finally noticed a match when about 2 minutes 20 into the video, the lyrics said "got to let go" and as that was sang, the video showed a red traffic light turning to a green connoting "go".

Music and Visuals-
This song uses this a lot throughout the whole music video. Every time the beat will drop, it will use a fast cut so that the music and visuals are in time with each other. This is something that my group will aim to use because it looks much more professional this way. There are many examples throughout the clip but this is just one of them. As the music changes beat it makes the cut.

Genre characteristics-
This song also has the genre characteristics involved. Andrew stated that record labels can sometimes demand a certain amount of close ups on the artist. For this video I have no way of proving that the record label demanded these however there was a lot of close ups on the artist use throughout the music video and she was the main person involved.

Male Gaze-
The male gaze theory was also slightly used within this music video on the artist. Although the camera did not focus on the women's assets so much, they still gave the artist a lack of clothing so that she would look 'sexier' and more appealing to men.

Intertexual references-
This part is where other media texts may be involved within the music video. However for this particular video, this was not used.

Research on Andrew Goodwins Theory

Andrew Goodwin's theory consists of six aspects of the music video industry.
Lyrics and Visuals-

The relationship between lyrics and visuals is demonstrated in Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball. The lyrics say 'I came in like a wrecking ball....' and have Miley Cyrus literally sat on top of a wrecking ball swinging back and fourth. The video speaks about her recent break up with fiancé Liam Hemsworth.

Music and Visuals-

Music and visuals is demonstrated in Katy Perry's music video The One That got Away. At the end the song ends then a fade in of old country and western style 'My only sunshine' this is not necessarily promoting her single, but its enhancing the narrative structure. As the imagery we see reflects the music, this engages the audience and we as an audience make this link and sympathises with the characters.

 Music videos have genre characteristics-

Certain features are expected out of a video depending on the genre of the music, for example a girl bands/artists are expected to have dancers and close ups of the singers, whilst a Indi band are expected to have performance shots of the band and cut to a fast beat.

Demands of record label-

Often due to the demands of the record label, artists videos will include many close ups of the artist and will often develop motifs that recur across multiple videos-

This allows the record label to promote a set image for the band, which will help target audiences empathise with the band.

Emphasis on 'looking'-

The 'male gaze' is often used to attract a male audience. The male gaze is a focus on presenting things that appeal to men. This often means a voyeuristic view of, and an objectification, of women. The emphasis on looking also includes the artist looking directly into the camera helping the audience connect with the artist.

Intertexual references-

Music videos reference other forms of media, most commonly film, but can also be television and other music videos.


How to analyse music videos;Andrew Goodwin identifies 5 key aspects of music videos that we, the audience, should look out for;
- Thought beats – Where you ‘see’ in the sound
- Narrative and Performance
- The Star Image
- Relation of visuals to song
- Technical aspects of a music video

Independent Learning- Music Video Factsheet

The purpose of music video is the digital age

The purpose of music videos is to sell the media product. It can also help to sell the album the particular artist has released or in some cases any films which are being released. An example of this would be the song 'We Own It' by 2 Chainz, Wiz Khalifa. this was a very popular song and reached high up in the charts and was played in the cinema of the film Fast and Furious. This helped to promote the film as well as the film promoting the song.

                                                                                                                                                           
When the audiences were to buy this song via the Apple website, it would also display a picture of the film as the cover. This again helps to promote the film because it is making the audience aware this film exists.

Here is the picture. It shows the actors involved with the film and also shows what genre the film is because of the conventions used. From this you can clearly see that this song is trying to promote the movie which goes along with it.
The song itself is linked with the movie because you would expect them to go with each other. From the video above you can see that the song is very fast paced and the lyrics link it what some of the film is about.







Music videos is also an odd way to promote the song. This is because with this particular media product, you are showing the whole audience the song right until the end and giving them the full product before they have even bought it. This is different to how brands of coffee for example will show their product as desirable but the audience can't actually taste the coffee until they have bought the product.
Until about 8 years ago, this would not be much of a problem to the music industry due to music videos only being shown on shows such as Top of the Pops which had to be approved by the record labels but since the new technologies and video hosting sites such as YouTube, it means that the videos are easy to watch because they can be uploaded by anyone and watched easily via iPods, iPhones, iPads etc. All you would need is a source of internet and you would be available to it as it is at no cost. This meant to the industry that if people could access these videos for free and that easily, the audiences will just watch the music video instead of buying the song so the record labels are losing out.
Record labels have been trying to tackle this problem by using copyright but they worked out that this is time consuming and expensive. Instead, artists have their own YouTube channel now and will have links to legally download music on places such as iTunes.
This is important that there is links because with the new ways to illegally download music such as 'YouTube Converter', it will mean audiences have more of a chance of buying it legally therefore the record labels can profit.
The three major record labels in America (Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Abu Dubai) teamed up to create Vevo which displayed music videos online and they would receive all the money for advertising as there is no third party people putting videos up and getting money from it as well like on YouTube.

I have found all this information out by one of my teachers creating a page about this information. From this it has then enabled me to research into more depth in order to find out things which were not mentioned on this page. It has been helpful to find out this because when it comes to making our films digipack etc. we may choose to go down that root.
It is also helpful to know the background of music and how piracy has affected it. If we was to actually distribute our music video then this would help us as we would know the places to distribute it in order to profit as much as possible.

Initial Ideas On Our Music Video