Nava began as a runner for film production companies.
He also worked for Blink Productions.
He now does freelance work for OB management. After working as a runner graduated to Assistant Director (A.D.) where he would manage the video shoots. He signed to Academy – who are the
biggest music video production company. Then worked for Between the Eyes and now
works mainly for Pulse.
Emil’s first budget was for the band Kid
British and the track Our House
Budget - £20,000
Location – Manchester
Cast – local people
1 day for filming
2/3 days for editing
10 days pre-production
Demonstrates the very tight timescales involved
Emil Nava gives advice on becoming a music video director, he also talks about making music videos with Jessie J and what goes into making music videos.
This is one of the videos which Nava made, It is of Jessie J's 'Wild'.
At his busiest Emil has made 24 music
videos in one year.
When he began shooting videos for independent labels the budget would be as low as £5,000 to£10,000
His most expensive video to date has been
for Jessie J and the budget was £160,000.
He has also started to make adverts, which generally have a higher budget and production values but which allows for less creative freedom.
He also done various Music videos for a number of different artists such as Paloma Faith, Ed Sheeran, Jessie J and Rita Ora.
Paloma Faith
Ed Sheeran
Both of these videos were shot in different ways, "Lego House" being in a narrative style and "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" being shot focusing on the singers. However both of the videos use the style of mid shots and close ups.
Jessie J
Rita Ora Emil’s Top Tip
Use Extreme Close Up on faces wherever possible
Do not shoot whole of video in medium shot/long shot
Example – Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares to U
Godley & Crème - Cry
Some of the Production Companies that OB
work with are:
Pulse Films
Rocket
Agile Films
Friends
Wonda
OB Management work
as agents for music video directors. They describe themselves as, “ three straight up dudes who work out of Denmark Street London”.
Jamie Thraves is a director who started his career by making short films in university. He began filming 3 low budget music videos each with only £5000 each. Jamie Thraves submitted treatments for his two best
known videos and each was accepted.
He started by directing a music video for Radiohead's song "Just" where a man lies on the pavement and is confronted by an angry crowd, this video garnered Thraves a lot of attention for its strong narrative structure and use of subtitles, what the man says to make the crowd lie down at the end of the video still manages to cause great discussion among fans some fifteen years later. He had a budget of £100,000 and shot the video in just 3 days.
His second huge moment in his career was when he made a music video for Cold Play's song "the scientist" In which everything goes backwards in time, This video had a £200,000 budget and was filmed in just 3 days as well.
Jamie Thraves – most recent video – Japanese Popstars – Song for Lisa
Currently videos cost about £20,000
Shooting time – 2 days
Jamie has used the music videos to get into the film business
Has so far shot three features:
The Low Down
The Cry of the Owl
Treacle Jr
Jamie's tips for making music videos:
Use the lyrics but try not to be too literal
Most importantly – go with the emotion of the lyrics
Katy Perry has a target audience of young girls, aged around 14-17 so therefore she has to be like an older sister/friend, she has to reflect some of the anxieties that young girls have and thirdly be someone that young girls admire and want to be. (eg. appear sexy in a non-threatening way).
"Hot N Cold"
In this video Katy Perry presents herself as somewhat of a victim, the video is somewhat comedic in a way in how this video is played out. She is seen as everybody's friend and also this video could be argued to see that she is having a laugh at herself.
"Last Friday Night"
This music video shows us that Katy Perry isn't afraid to appear as ugly. For example through the idea of her wearing braces, having bra pads and facial air.
"Firework"
This music video of Katy Perry could be seen as a a way for her to tell her fans to celebrate their differences and not to be ashamed of them, this would give a positive message to all her young fans who may be going through tough times. This video also contained elaborate special effects which would help portray the positive message of the song and the lyrics that it gives.
"California Gurls"
In this video Katy Perry goes through an image change. This time she portrays a somewhat sexy image through the time she was dating Russell Brand. This could be argued as a way which also alienates her young audience which she has tried to avoid in her older videos.
"Wide Awake"
This video can be seen as an attempt of Katy attempting to reconnect with her younger fans, as if it was an apology for her older videos where she changed her views whilst she was with Russell Brand. This video goes back to some of her older themes such as the idea of female empowerment.
"Roar"
This music video was made with high production value so they were able to make more in this video for example the special effects that were used in the video. This video also gives off a similar message to that of "Firework" such as that of female empowerment and the positive messages that are promoted in this video such as the idea that women do not need men. Humour was also an element of this video and the idea of being sexy for herself and not to impress a man.
Richard Dyer believes artists are constructed through artificial images such as advertising, films, magazines and music. He claims that consumers prefer artists to
convey their true emotions themselves and not be groomed by record labels who
try to create a fake image for them.A “real” artist can use this as their
unique selling
point.
Richard Dyer also believes that stars are manufactured to make money for their record labels by appealing to their target audience. As a result of this record labels have to market
different artists
to
cater for certain
target audiences as there are both ‘niche’ and ‘mainstream’ markets.
Another one of Dyer's beliefs within his Star Theory is that artists become trendsetters in the sense that audience members will imitate hairstyles and artist clothing styles. Artists may have certain religious beliefs and cultural values that audiences may also pick up on if shared by the artists. The internet has meant audiences now have
far greater access to the “personal” lives of stars.
The Stars of music video support Hegemony. They are presented as 'real' human beings. Stars support hegemony*/dominant
ideology of their time/ generation - glorified versions of 'us‘. They promote leadership or dominance, especially by one state or
social group over others.
Gramsci
is
best known for his theory of cultural hegemony,
which describes how states use cultural institutions to maintain power in
capitalist societies.
The music industry creates and promotes
artists within clearly defined genre – rock, rap etc.
These genres offer signifiers relating to race and gender identities.
Deconstructing Britney Spears
Britney raises interesting issues regarding female identity in pop music. Initially, she was viewed as
a role model for the teen girl market. From a gender perspective, Britney's identity is placed securely
within a male dominated industry that manufactures limited stereotypes of femininity.
In her early videos, Britney was surrounded by 'girlie iconography'- such as that of bedroom cultures,
dolls, dressing up with friends, hanging out, applying make-up, the teen pigtails complete the image.
There were often choreographed dance routines to create the desire to be part of 'her gang'.
This can be seen primarily in the video "From the Bottom of my Broken Heart":
"Baby One More Time"
In this video of Britney's there is the idea of the innocence such as the teen schoolgirl in pigtails but there is also the idea of underlying sexuality through the idea of the imagery and in the lyrics. It can be argued that this video is rather exploitative other than empowering.
"I'm not a girl, not yet a woman"
Britney's songs and video narratives express teen girl identity, the concerns and reflections. She is also constructed as a role model in this video. The story of this video explores the tensions of growing up and the journey of childish innocence to the realities of adult life.
"Oops I did it again"
This video can be seen as an argument in the idea of Innocence versus Sexuality. It could be argued that the messages of this video are confused such as the idea of the video supposing to be the idea of an empowering act becomes being exploited such as the choreographed dance scenes in her previous videos have now become exploited thanks to the lyrics of this song. This is also proved further thanks to the idea of Laura Mulvey's idea of "The Male Gaze" and how Britney is sexualised in this video.
"Overprotected"
Throughout this music video Britney's performance is a result of watching a news report on her wearing few clothes. She believed that she is no longer a girl and so therefore should not be told what to wear. She believed that being half-naked was an empowering act. There is a somewhat more confident tone to the choreographed routine. It can be argued that this video is empowering to women but it can also be argued that the video is empowering to women with the idea of little clothing to prove that they can do what they want but it can also be used to argued that this is also exploiting to women too.
"Hold It Against Me"
This video can be seen as a way in which Britney is attempting to reject her 'constructed image' as if she wants to get rid of all the times that she was exploited in her music videos.
When it comes to gender debates, Britney Spears' music videos are that of a polysemic text. Her career has evolved from the idea of 'Teen Princess' with connotations of innocence and girliness to a half naked women who performs for a male audience in FHM and Loaded. Both of her identities are stereotypical visions of femininity as presented in a range of media texts.
There are different ways in which Music Videos are portrayed as; either that of the music video being primarily performance based, narrative based or concept based and how each of the elements of each are used in it.
There are three ways in which music videos work to promote a song:
Illustrate- Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre, this is the most common style of music videos.
Amplify-This
is similar to repeatability. Meanings and effects are manipulated and
constantly shown through the video and drummed into our vision.
Disjuncture-This
is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored.
Songs do not give us the complete narrative
We only tend to get the gist of the meaning of the song and then tend to make our own idea of what is being told.
Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative. It is important in their role of advertising.
Music videos should have coherent repeatability. Narrative and performance work hand in hand. It makes it easier for the audience to watch over and over without losing interest.
The artist acting as both narrator and participant helps to increase the authenticity however the lip sync and other mimed actions remains the heart of music videos. The audience need to believe that this is real.
An example of this can be seen in the music video of "Leave right now" by Will Young.
Andrew Goodwin in Dancing in the Distraction factory (1992) has identified key features in music videos:
Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine in boy/girl bands) e.g. Metallica, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden.
There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
The demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs rear across their work. (a visual style).
There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
There is often inter textual reference (to films, TV programmes, often other music videos).
Bing Crosby was the biggest star in the world during the 1940s.
The only way that his fans could see him was through his films and in TV Specials.
Bing Crosby.
After Bing Crosby came Frank Sinatra during the 1950s. Sinatra was seen as a younger and better version of Bing Crosby. Like Crosby, the only way that his fans saw him was in his Films, TV specials ad in his Concerts.
Frank Sinatra.
Then in the late 50s and early 60s came Elvis Presley, with him introducing Rock and Roll. This style of music seemed to be revolutionary at the time. Like Sinatra, the ways that his fans could see hime was in films, on TV specials and in concerts but only if you was in America.
Elvis Presley
And then in the 1960s, came the Beatles, who appeared on TV shows like Top of the Pops, in concerts like that of Shea Stadium, which made them quit live shows thanks to the over excessive screaming. Thanks to this they made films for their fans to listen to their songs and also made the first pop video of their songs 'Paperback writer' and 'Rain'. This music video contains the main ideas of every music video like the concepts of close ups, miming and link to the meaning of the song and promotes the band and the song.
Music can be split up into two different categories, organic meaning that the artists have grown and were the music comes first. The other type of music is synthetic like where money is the final outcome.
Organic
The term 'Organic' is used to describe bands where the music comes first, they make the kind of music they want to make and then the record labels (if signed) try and sell this music to the correct market segment.
'Organic' music often appeals to a niche, but can appeal to a mass audience too.
"Radiohead" and "Avenged Sevenfold" are examples of organic artists, they made music first and then earned the money second.
Radiohead
Avenged Sevenfold
Synthetic
The 'Synthetic' refers to the 'X factor' methodology,and it is the record labels that sit in the driving seat.
A gap in the market is identifies, and then it is exploited by the development of music, and often the artist, to suit this gap.
Money is the ultimate goal in this operation. Acts such as "One Direction" and "the monkees" are good example of "manufactured" artists.
The music industry is dominated by four multi national corporations:
Universal
Sony Music
Warner Brothers
EMI
These are referred to as 'The Majors'. The majority of these are backed by conglomorates with stakes in other industries such as; Film, TV and electronics.
Major-Independents
Most of these 'Majors' own or license, a series or smaller subsidary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genre.
Columbia
Island
Syco
RCA
Virgin
Thse companies are known as 'major-independents'.
Indepenedents
These are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connecton to the major.
These companies often concentrate on a small number of acts, within specialisd niches in the industry.
These are called 'independents'. An example of a highly successful independent is 'Domino Records'.
It is often that record labels begin as independents but then are bought by a major and then become major-independents.
