Representation of Gender in Nero's music videos

I decided to carry out research into gender as there are a number of interesting representations, varying by video. This decision was also based on the fact that my own video's two main characters will be a person of each genre. The information I have drawn together will be helpful in choosing how to represent the characters in my own production.

If I Found Love, The Strangers

This is the final edit of our production.

Notes on filming of the Strangers performance

Problems encountered -

- Absent and late crew members
- Late change of staging position
- Only three SD cards (we had planned for more)
- Different song version
- Framing and lighting was difficult because of spatial restrictions
- Inadequate training for certain members on use of cameras
- No direction of choreography which meant cameras had to move with the performers, which proved difficult

Strengths -

- Choice of high and low angles
- Multiple members on cameras
- Organisation beforehand of crew members was assured

As you can see the problems we encountered outweighed the strengths of our filming. Perhaps what allowed us to battle around the problems was our organisation. We were ready to go in the small allotted amount of time that we had and so got enough shots that we were able to produce a half decent video. Unfortunately one of our camera 'crew members', the one we had on the floor, mistakenly pressed the record button twice and so failed to capture any footage, however our filming from above meant we were lucky enough to get away with it. Our camera nearest the band had a little trouble framing due to the late change in staging however again our organisation meant we had time enough to sort this. Further to this, once we got the footage back to the editing suite, we realised that the band had played a slightly different version to the recorded song we have to put the footage to. Fortunately our editors have managed to work around this and we have produced a worthy video.

Of course all of the trials and tribulations we experienced here, as well as the successes, will help to ensure we experience maximum success when it comes to producing our actual project.

The Strangers

On Wednesday (9/11) a band called The Strangers came into our school to play a gig. Beforehand they allowed us Media students, in small groups, to practice our filming of a performance by shooting them as they rehearsed their gig line up. This gave all of us I think, further insight to how to shoot a performance and the problems that can occur along the way.

I was assigned as the Director of my group and so I had to make sure everyone knew what camera they were working and the types of shots they were expected to take. Due to the late arrival of the band we had only one chance to shoot our footage. With the plans we had put together before the filming session we were quietly confident that we could do a good job, however the stage was at a slightly different angle to what we originally had thought and so suddenly framing became difficult from the angles we had positioned our cameras. With one shot and a small timeframe though, we simply had to make the best of the situation.

At the moment we have not begun editing, however it is at this stage that we will see just how well our plans pulled through. I will blog again on this issue after seeing our footage.

In the mean time this is the tune and original video of the song we filmed, called If I Found Love

Storyboards and the like are absent due to the small amount of planning time we had for this project.

Acceptance!

Below is the correspondence between myself and MTA Records. We have permission!


Hi Michael

Thanks for your email.

Providing that it is not for public domain and you will not be exploiting
the recording of Nero 'Innocence' in a public performance or earning any
revenue from such performances in any way, we are happy to grant one off use
on this occasion.

Good luck!

Thanks

Sophie





On 10/10/2011 17:34, "Michael JARVIS" <05JARVIS_Mi@swchs.net> wrote:

> To whom it may concern
> 
> My name is Michael Jarvis. I am writing on behalf of myself and Frank James.
> We are both Year 13 students at Saffron Walden County High School, currently
> taking a Media Studies A-level.
> 
> For part of our A-level we are required to produce a music video. I am writing
> to ask for permission to use Nero's track 'Innocence' for our's. The track
> would be used solely to examine myself and Frank's ability to construct a
> music video.
> 
> I do hope this proposition is acceptable.
> 
> Many thanks for your time
> 
> Michael Jarvis

Track Selection

I shall be working with Frank James to produce my final music video. We worked together successfully on producing a two minute film opening last year and so saw no reason not to work together this year.

When thinking about what track to produce a video for, we first told each other the types of genres we both like listening to, in order to see if we both enjoy a certain genre, having agreed that it will be hard to work with a track that we don't particularly enjoy listening to for the length of time we will be required to. The genres, it turned out, that we had a mutual liking of were Dubstep and R'n'B.Our primary thought when considering what tracks we could use from the R'n'B genre was that many of the tracks we prefer are produced by black artists and so we would need a black person to perform in our video to make it look authentic. As neither us knew of anyone who 'fitted the bill' so to speak, we decided to look more into the Dubstep genre.

When thinking about artists and songs we like, it quickly emerged that we both enjoy the music of the band Nero, who recently released an album earlier this year called Welcome Reality, from which has come five singles, one of which was even number one in the UK charts for a small period.

We both liked the thought of producing a video to one of the singles from the album but were weary that our production could be compared with Nero's own. Having watched the videos of each single on YouTube though, it occurred that one video was of the animation genre. This video was for the track 'Innocence' and so we decided to write to MTA Records, the record label with whom Nero are signed and ask for their permission to use this track.