Assignments

Music video production

Promotion of a song

 A song may be easier to promote when a music video is included. Music videos allow for video advertising on social media platforms, as well as TV. Music videos also allow for product placement within the video, allowing for the label to make more money through advertising brands throughout the video.

Music videos also bring in more income for a record label. Platforms such as YouTube pay content creators for allowing YouTube to place advertisements on videos, and if a record company produces music videos on their YouTube channels, they will gain extra income from these advertisements.

Many music videos contain product placement. This is another reason why a music video may be created; so that the record label can gain extra income from taking payments from companies to place their products in the video. Watches, drinks, and sometimes even cars are advertised within music videos.

Sometimes, music artists, or even record labels, can be asked and paid to produce songs, for other media related products. For example, we will use Eminem's song "survival", which was created solely for the purpose of advertising Call of Duty's new release, CoD Ghosts.

The music video doesn't exactly tell a story, and was created as a pre-order bonus for the video game Call of Duty ghosts. The music video features in-game footage of the game projected onto a wall on an abandoned warehouse via a project, featuring dogs, and soldiers in their in-game outfits. This is a consistent theme throughout the music video, and promotes the game further to anyone who is viewing the music video.

In this image, we see Eminem performing in the music video, and we can see in the background gameplay of Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Childish Gambino - This is America 

Childish Gambino's music video for This Is America, is a surreal depiction of some of the current problems in recent times throughout America. The music video uses subliminal messages, where the content is down to the viewers interpretation and not told explicitly. For example, through the video, viewers see Childish Gambino use an AK-47 to gun down a church choir, and a little boy takes his gun off of him carefully, with an elegant piece of cloth, meanwhile the bodies are just dragged away - many viewers have said this may be a reference to how America is so willing to protect gun rights over people. This specific scene is also believed to be referencing the 2015 Charleston church shooting. Childish Gambino's music video for This Is America is made to help spread awareness about the problems in America towards the black community, gun laws, and crime.

This is America sparks controversy and sheds light on the apparent inequality of blacks in modern day America. Poor gun control equals high rates of gun violence, and throughout the music video we see this implied by Childish Gambino, as all the firearms in the video are held with great care, even after being used, however all of the people featuring in the video are poor, unfairly treated and rough. It shows the parallels between how America seems to care more about guns than their own people.

Alan Walker - Faded

Alan Walker's "Faded" music video features Shahab Salehi as the videos protagonist, who is dressed in all black attire, exploring with his backpack. The video was shot in Rummu, Estonia, focusing on abandoned, ruined, or buildings which were in disrepair. The protagonist holds a photo of his old house, and is searching for it through the ruins of other buildings. By the end of the video, the protagonist finds his old house, but it is ruins, where he removes his mask and the video fades to black. This music video's purpose is to promote the song.

This music video features many shots and locations similar to the one shown above in the image. This is the main theme of the video, abandoned, derelict buildings. Here in the image shown above, we see the flare that Alan Walker used to illuminate his way through the abandoned building he decided to walk through on his journey.

PSY - Gangnam Style 

Gangnam Style, a single by South Korean music writer PSY, was a worldwide music hit and its music video went viral, sparking the Gangnam Style dance trend. The music video appears random, with no structure, other than the fact that PSY is singing the lyrics to the song. Everything else is unstructured, random and has comedic value to the video. This music video is made for entertainment purposes.