The History of the music Video

When looking at the history of music video I decided to look at things from the
beginning of the subject. I thought this would be important as I would be finding out
how music videos took off in the first place. The earlier music videos that I knew
about were 'video killed the radio star' and 'bohemian rhapsody' however to my
knowledge that was all I knew that these were not the earliest and so I decided to
go and research more into it and check on some earlier ones. After some research
on the internet I found out that the first music video would be 'The little lost child' in
1894. This is considered more like the first illustrated song. Using a magic lantern, a
series of still images were projected on a screen simultaneous to live performances.

I then after reading that compared it to a more music video like 'This is America' or
an animated music video like 'Earth' and see how they have change since the first
one. This is important to see how tastes have changed as far as music videos go.
After comparing pieces like video killed the radio star to old town road, I figured out
a few different things. For example, 2 things have never changed when it comes to
music videos, and they are that they have always had either a performance aspect
or a narrative to it. The development of motion picture complexity has been driven
by a continuing technological evolution, ignited and manipulated by human
initiative and inventiveness, which has afforded filmmakers the opportunity to
practice a more complex craft to tell more complex stories. Other music videos
have more of a narrative to the production for example 'maps' by maroon 5 has a
full story and no shots of him singing at all. to get a higher grade I will have to focus
on a good narrative in my own piece and so looking at other productions with that
same idea about them. Then came changes in technology “The development of
motion picture complexity has been driven by a continuing technological evolution,
ignited and manipulated by human initiative and inventiveness, which has afforded
filmmakers the opportunity to practice a more complex craft to tell more complex
stories”. This is a short extract from Ryan A. Piccirillo. (2011). The Technological
Evolution of Filmmaking and its Relation to Quality in Cinema. The reason I have
chosen to use this Extract was because I feel as if it is the perfect way to describe
the change in technology in film in the last however many years. “He goes on to say
Although the linear technological evolution of filmmaking has empowered
filmmakers by offering a more diverse catalogue of tools and techniques, it is the
filmmaker’s ability to effectively and discerningly utilize this technology within a
temporal and societal context that truly drives cinematic quality, of which there has
been no clear linear progression.” I feel like this is important point to make, as it
means although the technology has become greater in its physicality the people
behind it have also become smarter and more aware as how to use it. Then I dove
deeper into camera changes and found out as film history has progressed, so too
has the sophistication of filmmaking technology, from cameras, to sound recording,
 to editing. Technological advancements in these areas expand the creative
potential of the filmmaker. However, just because technology is more advanced
does not mean that it is necessarily superior in each given application. Rather,
advanced technology is advantageous in that it broadens the toolset available to
the filmmaker from which he or she can discern which equipment and techniques
are best suited to a given production. French film theorist Louis Delluc would call
these filmmaking techniques and methods cinematic formal elements, or those
elements unique to film as an art form, such as editing and camera movement
(Jaramillo). As the evolution of film has progressed, the catalogue of cinematic
formal elements has grown, enabling filmmakers to, at their discretion, make more
complex films.

Piccirillo, R.; 2011. The Technological Evolution of Filmmaking and its Relation to
Quality in Cinema. Inquiries Journal

Technology has evolved a lot

since the first film camera was
made to what we see now with
huge blockbuster movies that
have millions and millions spent
on them. The first change I
decided to look at was the old
Camera.

There has been a lot of change when it comes to cameras.

The obvious biggest change is the quality of the film that
comes out of it. Back in the day it looked grainy and was just
in black and white. Where as in current times we can have 8k
video being filmed. I then thought it would be important at
editing, I found out that. Editing allowed film to take off as it
allowed the film to transport between any two shots. For
example, a setting like a train station to someone’s face.
Editing also allows shots to be sped up or slowed down, which
is interesting because this obviously can't be done in real life.
This in fact is the reason why people generally like film as they
would like to be able to edit their own lives as is done in film.
Editing can also be used to make the audience have a
certain reaction. For example, it can startle the audience or
can make them laugh. Editing also went on to add colour to
film, this was the process of film colorization. To do this, each shot was individually
coloured by hand. You can see this in the video below of Greed from 1924 where
certain parts of the film have had colour included. Some filmmakers chose to
minimize editing, seeing it as the "death of 1,000 cuts" for realism.
 Then I looked at music videos that I like and could
take inspiration from in this video analysis it shows the
music video with text showing the audience what the
producer is trying to show. for example, as is shown in
the thumbnail there is a clear hero of the story and so
we follow his journey through-ought. Another aspect
of the music video is darkness in a lot of the scenes. This is showing the evil time that
they our hero is living in. The piece is very great in the way where compared to other
music videos of the time it looks great due to the budget. Riptide is a big song for
people from the age of 15-20 and so this will work perfectly for my target audience
and so looking at this will help me in my FMP. It is made using short clips of whatever
the artist is singing about. for example, if he talks about the riptide then a video of
the sea. This is effective because you are seeing what you are listing too and so it
engages the audience. This is something very
modern as comparing it to older music videos
where it is all performance based. Finally, I looked
at significant pieces to see what’s changed within
them. When looking at significant pieces I decided
to filter YouTube by view count and see which
much videos have been reached the most. The
Two videos that came up that I was very familiar with were, 'Uptown Funk' and 'Girls
like you' Uptown Funk with over 3 billion views and maroon 5 with over 1 billion views.
This makes them both significant pieces in the history of music videos in my opinion.
So aside from the music behind the video I looked at both of these in detail so see
what engages the audience the most so that I can use the same techniques in my
own production. First looking at uptown funk I could tell that the way they had filmed
it was focusing mainly on performance. and so, won't be taking any of the
performance aspect into my own music video as I’m focusing on narrative. In
Conclusion I Found it very helpful looking at the history of music videos, the change
in technology and video analysis. From what I have found out I can take all of it into
account to help me out with my music video that I have to come to make. The
history is music videos helped because it meant that I could look back at the very
beginning and see what made music videos take off and how they looked back
then. Looking into the camera technology and editing helped me because it meant
that if I wanted to make a older themed music video I could see how it is filmed and
how they were put together. Video analysis helped because I looked at popular
modern videos that I enjoyed watching. This was helpful so I could watch music
videos that relate to my age range. Finaly looking at significant videos was helpful
because I could see what some of the most popular music videos of all time looked
like. In conclusion this was all helpful to look at to aid me in creating my music video
for my final project