100 greatest Music Videos

Below is the channel 4 list of the greatest music videos in numerical order;

1. Michael Jackson: Thriller
2. Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer
3. A-ha: Take on Me
4. Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody
5. Madonna: Like a Prayer
6. Robbie Williams: Rock DJ
7. Michael Jackson: Billie Jean
8. The Verve: Bittersweet Symphony
9. Madonna: Vogue
10. Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit
11. Coldplay: The Scientist
12. Michael & Janet Jackson: Scream
13. Pink Floyd: Another Brick in the Wall
14. Christina Aguilera: Dirrty
15. REM: Everybody Hurts
16. OutKast: Hey Ya
17. Blur: Coffee & TV
18. Beyonce: Crazy in Love
19. Madonna: Material Girl
20. Gorillaz: Clint Eastwood
21. Queen: I Want to Break Free
22. Justin Timberlake: Cry Me a River
23. Britney Spears: ...Baby One More Time
24. Radiohead: No Surprises
25. Madness: Baggy Trousers
26. TLC: Waterfalls
27. David Bowie: Ashes to Ashes
28. Foo Fighters: Learn to Fly
29. Electric Six: Gay Bar
30. Weezer: Buddy Holly
31. Eminem: Stan
32. Chris Isaak: Wicked Game
33. U2: The Sweetest Thing
34. The White Stripes: Fell in Love with a Girl
35. Sinead O'Connor: Nothing Compares 2U
36. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Give It Away
37. Guns N Roses: November Rain
38. Fatboy Slim: Weapon of Choice
39. Pulp: Common People
40. Missy Elliot: Get Ur Freak On
41. The Spice Girls: Wannabe
42. Bjork: It's Oh So Quiet
43. Dire Straits: Money for Nothing
44. Kylie Minogue: Can't Get You Out of My Head
45. Aerosmith: Crazy
46. Adam & the Ants: Prince Charming
47. The Prodigy: Firestarter
48. Johnny Cash: Hurt
49. Jamiroquai: Virtual Insanity
50. Paul Simon: You Can Call Me Al
51. Run DMC & Aerosmith: Walk This Way
52. Massive Attack: Teardrop
53. Wham: Club Tropicana
54. Daft Punk: Around the World
55. Fatboy Slim: Praise You
56. Eminem: Without Me
57. Meatloaf: I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)
58. The Cure: Close to Me
59. Abba: Knowing Me, Knowing You
60. Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams
61. The Prodigy: Smack My Bitch Up
62. Blur: Parklife
63. George Michael: Outside
64. Bjork: Human Behaviour
65. Aphex Twin: Windowlicker
66. Bob Dylan: Subterranean Homesick Blues
67. The Beastie Boys: Sabotage
68. Madonna: Ray of Light
69. Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Two Tribes
70. The Police: Every Breath You Take
71. Bjork: All Is Full of Love
72. Robert Palmer: Addicted to Love
73. Basement Jaxx: Where's Your Head At?
74. Wu-Tang Clan: Gravel Pit
75. Duran Duran: Rio
76. The Beatles: Strawberry Fields
77. MC Hammer: U Can't Touch This
78. Godley and Creme: Cry
79. New Order: True Faith
80. Radiohead: Just
81. Ultravox: Vienna
82. 50 Cent: In Da Club
83. Shakespear's Sister: Stay
84. The Boomtown Rats: I Don't Like Mondays
85. Sid Vicious: My Way
86. The Streets: Fit But You Know It
87. Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime
88. Elton John: I Want Love
89. Smashing Pumpkins: Tonight Tonight
90. The Pet Shop Boys: Go West
91. The Specials: Ghost Town
92. Herbie Hancock: Rockit
93. The Rolling Stones: We Love You
94. Bonnie Tyler: Total Eclipse of the Heart
95. The Cardigans: My Favourite Game
96. So Solid Crew: 21 Seconds
97. Cornershop: Brimful of Asha
98. Bronski Beat: Smalltown Boy
99. Supergrass: Pumping on Your Stereo
100. Musical Youth: Pass the Dutchie

Planning Documents: Shooting Schedule

Day	Scene	Location	Equipment	Costumes	Props	Cast +Crew
1 2	1. Brick wall 2. Sky 3. Bedroom	-Fambridge Road "         " -My House	-Camera, -tripod "            " "            "	-Black coat  -White t-shirt, -jeans, -White trainers "           " -White t- shirt -Grey tracksuit bottoms	N/A N/A	-Performer: Michael Hayes -Camera Man: Jhabed Abdul "            " "            "

Planning Document: Location

Production Schedule Location Visit Sheet Title: Green Lights Music Video Writer: E-Dubble Director: Michael Hayes Date: 3rd January 2014

1. Brick wall and sky background - Filmed on Fambridge Road Access to location via: Walking 2. Bedroom - Filmed in my own bedroom

21st - 25th Jan 14

Potential Filming Problems : - Weather: Raining, cloudy causing unfilmable conditions or uneffective  lighting.       - In public: people may get into the way, causing disturbances in filming and effecting the shots of the video.       - Road: filming next to road, cars can pass and cause disturbance or damage

Planning Documents: Shot List

Shot list for music video A2

1. Extreme Close up and close ups plus establishing shots
2. First Verse in front brick wall mix of Medium, long shots and close ups.
3. Time lapse of cars.
4. Chorus - Lip synching filmed with sky background
5. Close up of Traffic light on green light & camera over shoulder shot.
6. Verse 2 - lip synching filmed in bedroom mix of close, medium and long shots.
7. Shots reverting back to previous scenes (sky and brick wall)

8. Time lapse of sky
9. Ending scene, walking out of shot.


*The oder of these shots were switched (the bedroom scene was used first oppose to the brick wall scene) as I found it worked better with the song and I had recorded more footage on the bedroom scene allowing for more cuts in the first verse of the video.

Planning Documents: Risk Assessment

Contacts

Emergency Service: 999           
Robert Clack School:   - (Lower Site) Green Ln, Dagenham, Essex RM8 Tel: 020 8270 4222  
                                     - (Upper Site) Gosfield Road, Dagenham, Essex, RM8 1JU, Tel: 020 8270 4200

Group Members: Michael Hayes
                                 Jhabed Abdul                                                                                               

Location: Fambridge Road (Dagenham) & My House (Romford)

1. Hazard:
Weather (raining, Very Windy etc.)

Person(s) at Risk:
Cast, Equipment

Likelihood of Hazard: 3 (This hazard can be reduced greatly through the use of weather forecasts)

1 – Extremely Unlikely

5 – Extremely Likely

Severity of Hazard Outcomes: 2-3 (depending on type of weather e.g storm, heavy or light rain)

1 – Very Low Risk

5 – Very High Risk

Risk Level : 5

(Likelihood + Severity)

Measures to Take to Manage Risk:

Check forecasts, Plan film day on a clear weather. Or use umbrella to protect equipment from rain.

Risk Managed?

(Y/N)

Yes - Before filming the weather forecast was regularly checked for times of daylight where it was clear and sunny to ensure the shot/scene is as good as possible. (e.g no bad lighting, clear view/ no obstructions)

2. Hazard:

Equipment; People may trip over Tripods etc and potentially inflict damage to there-selves or to the equipment. Some filming will be completed in public, therefore this hazard is even more prevalent.

Person(s) at Risk:

Cast, Public and Equipment

Likelihood of Hazard: 2 (The cast and equipment should be placed in an excluded area of the location reducing this risk)

1 – Extremely Unlikely

5 – Extremely Likely

Severity of Hazard Outcomes: 3 (Bodily harm can be caused from tripping over equipment. Some equipment e.g the camera can be fairly expensive.)  

1 – Very Low Risk

5 – Very High Risk

Risk Level : 5

(Likelihood + Severity)

Measures to Take to Manage Risk:

When filming in public, put signs down saying that there is filming occurring. Make sure the cast is aware of the equipment and to be careful around it.

Risk Managed?

(Y/N)

Yes - The cast were briefed on safety before filming started making them aware of equipment and the potential dangers. We decided to film in a area of the street where few people pass and as a result we did not suffer any interruptions.

Planning Documents: Costumes

Main character: Michael Hayes

Scene 1 & 2. Brick wall & Sky
Costume - Jeans
               - White top
               - Black Coat

               - White trainers

Scene 3: Bedroom
Costume - White T-shirt
               - Grey tracksuit bottoms

Jeans

plain White t-shirt

Black coat

Grey tracksuit bottoms

Planning Documents: Treatment

Treatment

Group Roles Directed:    Michael Hayes Edited:       Michael Hayes Lip-singer: Michael Hayes Camera: Jhabed Abdul

Title: Green Lights

Synopsis: Story behind the video: The main character has been told he can't sing or make a career out of his passion. He wakes up one day after revising the option of quiting and decides to stands up against the 'haters' and follows his dreams. The verses in the music video will correspond with a main scene (either the brick wall or bedroom scene) and the verse with consist mainly of the sky scene. Later in the video shots will return to previous scenes and multiple separate segments will be intertwined with the lip syncing video.

Key Genre Conventions: -Fast paced editing -Jump cuts -Extreme close ups -Close ups -Low angle shots

Planning Documents: Contingency Plan

Contingency Plan Name: Michael Hayes

Potential problems and how to overcome these problems: 1. Weather - Potential damage to equipment, hazards to cast, Un-film-able conditions Overcome: Check forecasts regular and on planned filming days. Bring umbrella to cover equipment if it is potentially raining. 2. Equipment needs to be set up for still shots; potential problems such as tripping over the equipment may occur, potentiality hurting the person and causing damage to the equipment itself. This can be overcome by putting signs down alerting the public and making them aware of the potential threats ahead. Ensuring the cast present are aware where the equipment is placed, reducing the chance of someone, knocking or falling over the equipment surrounding them.

Case study 3 - Alex Southam

Alex Southam - Director

Southam freelances for OB Management alike Emil Nava. He first trained as a lawyer but decided to end that career and enter the film industry. This is fairly unorthodox as the two career choices are dramatically different. He began making videos teaching himself the 'trade'. He worked for Agile films who shared some information on their website:
'Alex Southam is an exciting new talent, working in a dizzying variety of styles across live action and animation. Entirely self taught, his inventiveness and creativity have caught the eye with a series of diverse promos for likes of the Walkmen, Alt+J and Lianne La Havas. Alex joined Agile in August 2012.'
As Southam started, he took the roles of the Camera, Lighting and Editing to help learn the process of making a video. Now he uses a Director of Photography. He stats that he appreciates the format of music videos as, 'you can try new techniques and can have real artistic freedom' and he is less keen on commercials as they allow 'much less freedom'. Southam now uses Vimeo (the increasingly important platform) to showcase his videos as it is considered to have a higher status than Youtube.

His breakthrough came with the video Tesselate for Alt J. They had a budget of £10,000 and a large cast. It took 1 day to shoot and they used Special effects via AfterEffects.

Another hit video he produced is Chase & Status Lost and not found.
Budget of £50,000



This video was filmed in Los Angeles using a steadicam and attempted to recreate an early 1990's VHS video look. They first attempted to film the entire video in 1 shot, however this was not possible so they reverted to using only 3 shots where they disguised the cuts to make it look like their is only 1 shot throughout. They filmed at 36 frames per second and then slowed it down to create a 'dreamy' effect.

Case study 2 - Emil Nava

Emil Nava - Director of music videos

Emil began as a runner for film production companies. This allowed him to get into the industry. Emil worked for Blink productions and now freelances for OB Management.After working as a runner emil graduated to Assistant Director where he managed the video shoots. He then signed to Academy, the biggest music video production company at the time. After he then worked for Between the Eyes and then Pulse. Emil began to create adverts which generally have a higher budget and production value than music videos, however he felt that they did not allow him to express his creativity and were dull and 'boring' to create. One of the adverts he produced was for L'Oreal 'Dare to be Different';



Companies want to advertise their products in a specific way allowing for less creative freedom although they pay more than music videos.

In a single year Emil made 24 music videos, highlighting that the process of creating and producing music videos is fairly fast.
The budget of music videos varies from the labels and the name of the artist. When Emil began directing videos for independent labels, he only had very small budgets of as low as £5000 to £10,000.
However one of his more expensive videos to date is for the artist Jessie J which had a budget of £160,000. His first budget was for the band Kid British, for the track our house. Shot in 1 day, in Manchester, the music video only had a budget of £20,000 highlighting the contrast between the different names and record labels and the budgets their videos have. It took 1day to film the video, 2/3 to edit the video and 10 days of pre-production, again demonstrating and reinforcing the idea of small timescales/production times music videos in the industry have.

Kid British - Our House;




OB Management

OB management work as agents for music video directors. They aim to;

• Nurture talent
• Work with record labels
• Work with production companies
• Match the right director with the right artists

Some of the production companies that OB work with are;

• Pulse Films
• Rocket
• Agile Films
• Friends
• Wonda

OB management represents many directors including Emil Nava

Emil's Videos

Some of Emil's more known music videos he has directed include;

Paloma Faith - 30 Minute Love Affair
Client - Sony





Paloma Faith - Picking Up the Pieces
Client Sony
Cost - £80,000




Ed Sheeran Lego House 
Client Atlantic





Ed Sheeran - You Need Me
Client - Atlantic
Cost - £35,000




Rita Ora - RIP
Client - RocNation





Jessie J - Do It Like A Dude
Client - Island 
Cost - £25,000




Jessie J - Price Tag
Client - Island





Emil's Top Tips

Emil states that a good music video utilises;

• Extreme Close Ups on faces wherever possible
• Avoid shooting videos only in Medium/Long shots

The use of Extreme close ups can be seen through his videos. For example in Do it like a Dude, there are many extreme close ups of Jessie J throughout the video.

Other well constructed examples of the inclusion of this technique include;

Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compare to U

And, Godley & Creme - Cry



Both these videos highlight the use of Extreme close ups and have been extremely successful.