Researching and Learning

 Hey everyone this is Hunter Pangia signing in and welcome back to my blog! Now that we have chosen our song which is Santa Claus is coming to town by The Jackson Five we have to do some research. For this project we've researched a handful of Christmas Music Videos since we are using a Christmas song. The purpose of this is to gather an understanding of what shots, editing  techniques, and strategies are used for this type of music video. What I've noticed is that the music videos typically start out with a medium close up of a child as well as a reverse shot. This brings the focus to the child and hints the audience that the child is looking at another subject in awe. The angle used is a high angle to give the child that powerless, innocent look. The video would then switch to the other main subject which is typically a magical figure which was what the little kid was looking at. The angle used would be a low angle giving this subject the power in this sense. The music videos would then switch to the establishing shot to give the setting away. Wide shots are also used to once again show the child in their environment with the main subject which is also a two shot. The setting would then change to a fantasy world with magical creatures or people in costumes with plenty of Christmas props. It would be difficult for our group to find such props and costumes so we would go against the conventions by wearing Christmas related outfits instead. There then is the eye-line match shot used to indicate the child looking at the stereotypical white Santa Claus. In editing there are a lot of insert shots that changes the angle along with the beat. The tracking shot is used to follow the child into their adventure. The rest of a music video would be a lot of cross cutting. The shots would go from an aerial shot, to a high angle , to a tilt. There is also a lot go action matching because the acting must go along with the song and the hook is used in the song in multiple occasions. The video would then end with a jump cut going back to what the child was doing in real time with a merry Christmas message at the end. Some slower doing music videos use a lot of dissolve editing to ease the audience into the setting changes. The representation in these music videos is usually a young  oblivious child having Christmas Fantasies. Since we are older we'll be going against that convention as well. Another way we'll go against conventions is by telling the story without all this money, we will use what we have. My group and I learned A lot when researching. That wraps up another blog and this is Hunter Pangia clocking out.