5 most expensive music videos

1. Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson, "Scream" (1995) — $7 million
The Mark Romanek directed video depicts the siblings escaping earth and its overwhelming media backlash via a spacecraft. With 13 pieces to its set, $175,000 in lighting, and a $65,000 computer-generated spaceship, the final bill skyrocketed to a whopping $7 million.



2. Britney Spears 2013 video for her hit single "Work B" cost $6.5 million due to her pretty epic choreography, location changes, an extensive wardrobe, and a guest appearance by a glimmering white Lamborghini. 



3. Die Another Day being Madonna's priciest ever at $6.1 million.

Directed by Swedish directing team,Traktor, and inspired by action scenes in the James Bond film "Die Another Day," the singer's video incorporates intense special effects to portray realistic fighting between a good and evil Madonna, wounds included.

4.When it was released in 1989, the "Express Yourself" music video was the most expensive video ever at $5 million.

5.The hypnotizing, trance-like feel of Madonna's 1995 "Bedtime Story" music video didn't come cheap. Director Mark Romanek incorporated Egyptian imagery, rotating sunflowers, and references to surrealist paintings — all seeking to illustrate the song's main line, "Let's get unconscious."

Cheryl Cole - Fight For This Love

Having analysed this music video is a performance as throughout the video Cheryl appears to be dancing for a crowd. This refers to the Simon Firth theory. In 2006, it was rumoured that Cheryl Cole was going through a divorce, however it appears that Cheryl was determined to make her marriage work. The lyrics to this video seems to reflect this attitude. Cheryl's choice of dance moves resembles fighting moves with suggests that she is not only singing those lyrics but is also fighting emotionally and maybe even physically. In this music video the colour scheme red, black and white are often used as background, which is interesting as these colours all connote different meanings. Red is a very emotionally intense colour. It is associated with energy, strength, power, determination, war, passion and love. White means safety, purity and cleanliness, as opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. All of these emotions are linked with her lyrics as the chorus of the song repeats "Fight for this love".

Britney Spears Competition - Christina Aguilera

Christina María Aguilera was on born December 18, 1980. Christina is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born in Staten Island, New York and raised in Rochester and Wexford, Pennsylvania, she appeared on the television series Star Search and The Mickey Mouse Club in her early teens. In 1999, Aguilera rose to prominence with her self-titled debut album, which debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and spawned the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Genie in a Bottle", "What a Girl Wants", and "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)". 

Britney Spears

Britney Jean Spears who was born December 2, 1981 is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana. She performed acting roles in stage productions and television shows as a child before signing with Jive Records in 1997. Spears's first and second studio albums, "Baby One More Time" (1999) and "Oops!... I Did It Again" (2000), became international successes, with the former becoming the best-selling album by a teenage solo artist. Title tracks "Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" broke international sales records.

Weekly production diary

This week my group were given two tasks, one was to do a lip sync video with another group member and the other was to create a casting profile of the person we are going to use for our music video. We decided to split the tasks in two, I was in charge of the casting profile. I enjoyed doing this task as it really made me consider the choice of our pop star and the conventions. I had to really focus and consider all aspects of the person that was chosen.

Weekly Production

This week during my lessons I have been watching and analysing music videos, we focused on videos made by previous A2 students. Watching the videos made me think of exactly how I would like my video to look.

However, the last student music video that I have analysed is the video that has greatly inspired my work. There were specific elements from their work that I would like to incorporate into mine, for example, their excellent composition and editing skills.

Nonetheless, watching other videos that in my point of view weren’t as good, made me realise what I do not want in my work. I have learnt that throughout my video, the narrative and point must always be clear t the viewer. Also, I know that throughout filming my music video, lip-syncing will be a focus point as I believe lip-syncing is important when making a music video.

Media Studies A2- Music Video

Previous media students created the above video; I have really enjoyed watching it and it has most definitely given me inspiration for my music video. My favourite element of this video, which in my point of view has given me inspiration, is the perfect editing, particularly the time lapse of the passing clouds in the sky at the very start of the video, this gave the video a theatrical feel.

Not only did I appreciate the fact that the lip sync is precisely on time, the choice of material and scenery was fantastic. It added clear narrative to the music video, thus giving the public a sharp understanding. Another element that stood out was the composition used for each scene. I particularly liked the fact that for each scene there is an establishing shot to differ the scenes from one another.

Apart from the amazing quality of the video, I believe that their use of fade-outs and crossfades helps to make the video look extremely professional. The actors were well chosen as they played their roles very well, staying in character and remaining professional all helped the video to have a high standard finishing.

Lyric analysis "Britney Spears-Don't go knocking on my door"

Don't go knock on my door
Don't go knock on my door 

Time is up
No more cheat n' lie

No more tears to dry

You and I, we're like so "bye-bye"
Finally
I am over you
Totally unblue
And I can hear myself saying
I am better off without you
Stronger than ever and I
I'm tellin' you now

[CHORUS:]
Don't go knockin' on my door
Gotta stay away for sure
You say you miss me like crazy now
But I ain't buyin' that
You better get off my back
Don't go knockin' on my door

I can see
It's no mystery
It's so clear to me
What we had is all history
It's OK
I can sleep at night
It will be alright
I can hear myself saying
I am better off without you Stronger than ever and I
I'm tellin' you now

[Repeat CHORUS]

Don't go knockin' on my door
Don't go knockin' on my door
Don't go knockin' on my door
Do what you want
As long as you don't come back
Don't go knockin' on my door
Gotta stay away for sure
And now I ain't buyin' that
You better get off my back

[Repeat CHORUS]

From reading the lyrics to the song I have automatically made the assumption that its  a love song referring to a past love. The title of the song "Don't go knocking on my door" also hints that it is a love song about a past lover that she no longer has interest in. As I continue to read into the lyrics she quotes "Time is up, no more cheat n lie" she then further continues to describe her hurt whilst in the relationship "No more tears to dry". This suggests to me that her now ex-partner was disloyal and untruthful which is why she has come to the conclusion to end the relationship. 

Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey states that in film and video women are typically the objects, rather than the possessors of gaze because the control of the camera comes from factors such as heterosexual men as the default target audience for most film and video genres. Mulvey believes that the female model is often put on display directly to the spectator (male audience), thus viewing herself as the male audience views her.

More than just being an object of a gaze, the woman in the advertisement becomes what’s being bought and sold: “The message though was always the same: buy the product, get the girl; or buy the product to get to be like the girl so you can get your man” in other words, “‘Buy’ the image, ‘get’ the woman”.

 In this way, the male gaze enables women to be a commodity that helps the products to get sold (the “sex sells” adage that comes up whenever we talk about modern marketing). Even advertising aimed at women is not exempt: it engages in the mirror effect described above, wherein women are encouraged to view themselves as the photographer views the model, therefore buying the product in order to become more like the model advertising it

A video that puts this theory on display is the video by Madonna called "Like a virgin". Throughout the video Madonna dances provocatively with a male gazing at her, with camera shots emphasising on her body parts, this video definitely supports Mulveys theory.

Real Love - Tom Odell

Thomas Peter Odell is an English singer-songwriter. He released his debut extended play, Songs from Another Love, in 2012 and won the BRITs Critics' Choice Award in early 2013. He is an indie pop artist.

The title implies that Tom Odell went through some sort heartbreak as he experienced love that according to him, was not real, hence the title. In addition to this, the lyrics in the video suggests that Tom

Auteur Theory - Jonathan Glazer

The term auteur originates from France which translates as author.

The Auteur theory was introduced in the 1950s by French film directors like Francois Truffaut who advocated a focus on the contribution directors made on the style and form of film. Truffault quotes, "A true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful, accurate but lifeless rendering of the orgiginal material".

Auteur Theory suggests that a director can use the commercial apparatus of film-making in the same way that a writer uses a pen or a painter uses paint or a paintbrush. In law, the film is treated as a work of art, and the auteur, as the creator of the film, is the original copyright holder.The film maker's style and practice has to be different which then gives them a signature status.

Jonathan Glazer (born 26 March 1965) is an English filmmaker, whose directing work includes feature films, music videos and advertisements. Glazer has a dull grey-ish style that runs through the vast majority of his music videos. They are often dragged and are slow paced, making the narrative videos complexed and often hard to follow and understand. In addition to this, he has a specific theme that runs through his videos which ususally consists of disturbed characters. An example of this would be "Rabbit in your headlights" by UNKLE ft. Thom Yorke (1998)

"Rabbit in your headlight"

From watching Glazer's work, he tends to use a lot of close up shots and mid shots to fully portray the tone of the piece. In "Rabbits in your headlights" his use of these shots illustrates the vulnerability og the lead role which goes against male objectification conventions. Glazer's work is typically very cinematic, in this he has fully captivated the tones of the piece, setting it apart from a "normal" music video.

"Under the skin"

In terms of mise-en-scene, by taking everyday environments, Glazer tends to manipulate them with negative or darker connotations and create surrealism. For example, taking a look at "Under the skin", Glazer uses clinical lighting to create an out of place feel to the audience. The evident minimalist take on the movie throughtout provides an 'eerie' and 'unsure' feel for the audience.

In addition to this fast editing and long shots are combined with special effects to create the enigmatic and disturbed feel to the video. In the case of 'Under the skin' he uses the woman as symbolic reference to convey lust/love.

history of who created what labels

History of record industry

5 record labels

Case Study-Britney Spares

-Era
- Competition
-Song Realease Dont go knocking on my door

Beyonce's Album Box Set Inspiration

I was browsing on the social media app called Instagram when I stumbled across what seemed to be Beyonce's New album box set! I must say I was in absolute shock.
After going off and doing some research I found out that a representative for the singer Beyonce has confirmed that the pop star will in fact release a platinum edition boxset of her 2013 self-titled album, including two brand new songs and a disc of live performances. 

This method of design for an album is very inspiring to me and I would love to interpret the idea into my album cover when the time comes. Yet so, I have taken into consideration that I will be designing an album cover and not a box set, however if I can incorporate some of the features and ideas into my work and redesign it to make it my own, I would most definitely do so.

Top 10 song choices

Maroon 5 -Animals Analysis

After the release of Maroon 5 new video, they have been heavily criticised for their "Animals" music video, with support groups claiming it promotes violence against women. 

In my point of view the video is a very interesting that can either be loved or cause controversy. 

In the video, Adam Levine's wife is stalked by his sinister character, a sociopathic butcher who takes secret photos of her and stores them in his meat locker.

At one point, he breaks into her apartment and lies beside her while she sleeps.
Covered in meat blood, Levine fantasises about having sex with her before approaching her in a club and creepily touching her shoulder. Then there are explicit blood-soaked sex scenes.

After watching the video, I thought to do some research to see how the audience reacted to such a strange video. After all, this is a different side to Maroon 5 which I think shocked many people. 

Unsurprisingly, sexual assault support groups are disgusted by both the track and its video, a group called RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network) released a statement of concern over the "dangerous depiction of a stalker’s fantasy".
A member of the group stated; "The trivialisation of these serious crimes, like stalking, should have no place in the entertainment industry."
I do agree with that particular statement as I believe that funnily enough the music video encourages activities such as stalking, which is seen as a crime. 

I was also shocked at the amount of sex scenes in the music video, I immediately started to think about the younger viewers who may watch this particular video online as there are no age restrictions as to who can watch it. This has definitely made me consider the context of my music video and what type of audience I would like it to be for.

Ed Sheeran-Thinking out Loud Inspirational video

I was watching different music videos online and stumbled across this new video by Ed Sheeran, I must say that I found the concept very interesting and thought to look deeper into behind the scenes of the video. Below is a quote from Ed Sheeran explaining the concept clearly.

"My original concept was to have a couple walk in and do some made ballroom dancing, at first I was going to get two talented dancers but as was the idea was formed, I thought hmm maybe I should have a crack at this."
The video particularly grabbed my attention because of the smoothness and elegance that ran throughout. The choreography was so perfectly done, it created a rhythm with the song, not to mention the perfect camera angles that showed chemistry between the two. In addition to this I also really liked the choice of lightings used, the tones of warm yellow lights really set a romantic theme to the location of the video which seems to be a hall where a wedding reception would take place.

Music video challenge

Most expensive videos