Famous Music Video Editors

Famous Music Video Editors

In order to gain an insight into the world of editing music videos, I have decided to research a few well known editors and try to incorporate some of the elements of editing that they have used in their music videos into my own.

Dustin Robertson

Dustin Robertson is a world renowned music video editor who has worked with the biggest names in the music video industry ranging from Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga to Justin Beiber, Usher and Elton John. Most of Dustin's work is based around the 'Dance' music video category which is what the majority of our music video is based around and research into several of his videos has allowed me to see what steps I could take in order to reach the level of editing that Dustin is currently at, many of the videos he has edited show a large amount of cuts per second which is something I am hoping to incorporate into our own music video as the pace of the actual song is quite fast.

Here is one piece of Dustin's work:

Pink-Lady Marmalade

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gigqOsA-SLQ

Rich Newey

Rich Newey is another well known music video editor and is the person responsible for the editing of Sean Paul's music video, 'Watch Dem Roll' which is a video that I am hoping to use as inspiration due to the fact it combines black and white with various coloured areas. This 'Sin City' effect is one that has been agreed by myself and the rest of my team as being the main visual effect to be used in our music video.

Having researched these well known music video editors, my knowledge of editing has largely increased and proven to me that editing is one of the most difficult areas of creating a music video. I will now use my new found knowledge and ensure that the editing of my music video is up to a high standard.

Here is Sean Paul-Watch Dem Roll (Directed by Rich Newey):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPae06-5Fzc&feature=fvst

Artist Comparisons #2

Ce'Cile

Another popular reggae artist I have found who is comparable with Princess Landa is Ce'Cile. Ce'Cile is a much more well known artist within not only the reggae scene but also mainstream wise which shows that reggae artists are able to breakthrough and succeed in mainstream chart success. She has performed globally in countries such as USA, Denmark and the Carribean to name a few but also at popular mainstream awards ceremonies such as the MTV Europe Awards. Ce'Cile is much more revealing in terms of her personality and the clothing which she wears, in the picture above it is evident that the low cut top has been purposely chosen in order for the artist to appear attractive and sexy which is one reason why I believe she has gained a much more fulfilling career in comparison to Lady Saw and again coincides with the fact that female artists in the music industry are no more than sexual objects for the pleasure of the audience. For this sole reason I believe that in order for our music video to gain popularity and promote itself, we must ask Princess Landa to dress in revealing clothing.

Here is a CD cover from Ce'Cile, evidently it is very simplistic and has no real unique selling point. I believe this was done on purpose in order to keep the attention solely on the artist, although Ce'cile is not wearing any revealing clothing she is wearing a tight latex dress which I believe again holds some kind of sexual factor which was purposely done.

Artist Comparisons #1

Lady Saw:

The above artist goes by the name of 'Lady Saw' and is a Jamaican reggae singer hailed as being the 'queen of dancehall', she is one of the much more popular artists within the reggae genre and has collaborated with chart topping reggae mainstream artists such as Sean Paul and Beenie Man. One of the main reasons Lady Saw is a suitable comparison to Princess Landa is the similarity between their vocal styles and also the types of songs which they sing, Lady Saw is a very independent woman in her own right and does not conform to the stereotypes of the music industry which is that female recording artists must be visually attractive and portrayed as sexual objects.

Here is a cd cover from Lady Saw and as you can see once again she is going against the stereotypes of female recording artists by wearing non revealing clothing and she is also standing in a very dominating and assertive pose which is the type of image we are trying to portray Princess Landa as. The Louis Vuitton designer handbag again shows her independence and how she is a lone woman getting her own money with no need for a man by her side which coincides with Princess Landa's song, 'No Time Fi Dem'.

Primary Research Evaluation

The first question I asked my target market was, "Do you find seductive and attractive females a good feature in music videos and does it appeal to you as a person?" which gained a majority vote of yes with only 50 people saying no, the response to this question proved to be an advantage to me and my team due to the fact that our whole music video surrounds seductive and attractive females and judging from the response will no doubt help to be a useful promotional tool in gaining popularity and viewers.

"Would you say the colour and ethnicity of the artist/ dancers in a music video affects whether or not the music video would be aesthetically attractive to you?" was the second question that I asked my target market, the response I gained from this question was just as I had anticipated with 230 people saying no and just 20 people saying yes. The music industry is surrounded with music artists from all over the world and different ethnicities so therefore the idea of using a black afro Caribbean artist and also dancers for our music video was not a worry to any of us as most popular artists nowadays are predominantly black.

"Reggae music is one that does not attract as much mainstream coverage as other genres, does Reggae music appeal to you as a genre?", I was very worried about the response to this question due to the fact that many music channels do not show reggae videos as much as genres although this is beginning to change now. Luckily the response to this question put my mind at rest with 180 people saying that reggae does appeal to them as a genre, although it may prove to be a difficult process in attracting a larger 'hype' surrounding our music video I believe with extensive promotion and placing our video on YouTube will no doubt help to increase the popularity.

"Do you think the success of an artist depends on their gender?", the answer to this question was once again as I had predicted with 230 people saying yes and only 20 saying no. I believe that female artists are actually MORE successful than male artists due to the fact that they are able to attract a wider audience and marketing themselves more as a sexual object to males and an inspiration/ influence to females attracting both genders and increasing their popularity. Some examples include artists such as Rihanna, Beyonce and reggae artists such as Ce'Cile and Lady Saw.

"How visually attractive would a black and white music video be in your eyes?", I was very sceptical about creating our music video in black and white due to the fact that there are a minimal number of music videos shot in black and white but I have come to the realisation that it creates a unique selling point to our music video (USP) and my target market seems to agree with me with only 30 people disagreeing. Having a USP allows product differentiation from the hundreds of music videos currently out and will no doubt help to ease the promotion and advertising process because the USP is a tool within itself and literally markets itself.

Primary Research

We could not just create our music video on what WE thought was best but rather what our target market thought was best and what they think should be included in the making and editing of our music video, this could not be done without conducting primary market research of our target market (16 to 25 year olds) which is why I put together an effective survey with questions that I thought would provide me and the rest of my team with a deeper insight into what should and shouldn't be done during the making of our music video.

Overall I asked 250 people from various different locations such as Harrow, Wembley and Kingsbury in order to make sure that our research was not biased and based on just one particular location, I chose these locations because they contain a wide range of different ethnicities and are full of 16-24 year olds so therefore it would make the primary research much more accurate and reliable.

The option of secondary market research was always available to me through the internet, books etc but I believed a first hand account would be much more effective and relevant to our music video and although it was much more time consuming in comparison to secondary market research the outcome was much more positive.

Questions and responses:

1) Do you find seductive and attractive females a good feature in music videos and does it appeal to you as a person?

Yes:200

No:50

2) Would you say the colour and ethnicity of the artist/ dancers in a music video affects whether or not the music video would be aesthetically attractive to you?

Yes: 20

No: 230

3) Reggae music is one that does not attract as much mainstream coverage as other genres, does Reggae music appeal to you as a genre?

Yes: 180

No: 70

4) Do you think the success of an artist depends on their gender?

Yes: 20

No: 230

5) How visually attractive would a black and white music video be in your eyes?

Not at all: 10

Just a bit: 20

I wouldn't mind: 100

Quite a bit:60

Very attractive:60

Technical Rehearsal-Planning and Preparation

Me and my team decided a technical rehearsal would be a good idea in order to make sure we familiarise ourselves with the location (Beech) and also the technical areas such as the lighting and the positioning of the cameras in order to increase efficiency when we actually shoot our music video. The booking of the cast and dancers was left to our director Layla as she knew them on a personal basis therefore we all agreed it would be best if she contact them.

We all decided three cameras, a crane and two tripods was the most suitable equipment to book, the reason we decided on three cameras was simply due to the fact that we wanted three different angles and perspectives (left, right and centre) with the centre camera being positioned on a crane to gain much more effective shots such as high angle, low angle and tracking.

From the onset, we all decided Beech would be the most suitable location to shoot our music video as there was enough space to fit a crane in there and the black backdrop curtains would provide me with ease of editing on final cut pro due to the fact we wanted the video to be black and white with various colour edits and having black curtains simplified the difficulty of using final cut pro. Another reason why we thought Beech was the most suitable location to shoot our rehearsal was the professional lighting equipment at hand which we used to our advantage in order to ensure that it created the type of effect we were looking for.

Our set up/Beech location:

Left hand side camera:

Lighting equipment Part 1:

Lighting equipment part 2:

Practise Run-Chase Run

Due to the fact everyone within my group were novices (myself included) to using video cameras and editing on Final Cut Pro, we were given the opportunity to familiarise ourselves with the equipment and were able to film a practise run of a chase scene in the process gaining experience on how to use the cameras but also being able to incorporate the knowledge we had of media theory i.e. different shots, mis-en-scene, locations into practical which will no doubt help when we begin shooting our music video.