Bon Jovi- What About Now Music Video

Thomas Austin Class A, Film and Tv Production Level 3, Unit 16:Music Video Production, 

Task 1- Report the Purpose, Styles, Conventions, and Techniques of a Music Video

23/09/2014- Video 1

Quick Brief about the band: 
Bon Jovi is a New Jersey rock band that was formed in 1983, there lead singer is Jon Bon Jovi, their guitarist is Richie Sambora, their keyboardist is David Bryan and their drummer is Tico Torres. The song "What About Now" is one song of an album they released in 2013. {1}
Purpose:
Promotional:
This music video is to promote Bon Jovi's new album, and their tour. At the time [3:53], they have the cover art of the new album which is called "What About Now":

But their main purpose of this music video was to promote their "Because we Can" tour, throughout the video you see their team preparing for the concert, the band singing live on stage, and their fans.
At [0:34] you can see them preparing the stage and their equipment using a birds eye view of the stadium:

You then see this clip again at [4;21]:

At [0:48] they use an extended long shot, this shows us that they are now singing live in a stadium:

At [0:56] they also use a extended long shot to establish their live audience:

Throughout the video you can see a few scenes of a plane, this will imply that its promoting a tour around the world and not just a single concert. These are at [0:37] and [2:19]:

At [2:49] in the video you see a view scenes of Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora practising for the concert:

And at [3:25] you see one of Jon Bon Jovi practising his vocals:

These two pictures are in a more black and white picture, this could be implying they are in a past time.

Synergy:
This video does not use any synergy, this is not connected to any film or TV show, and they don't have any adverts that use this song.

Producers Strategies:
Bon Jovi are part of the, major music labels, "Island Def Jam Music Group." This label is a subdivision of the biggest music label is the world which is "Universal Music Group." This label was formed in 1999 when Universal Music Group Merged "Island Records" and "Def Jam Recordings." {2}

Island records have been around for over 50 years. They was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell and Graeme in Jamaica. They are also the producers of Fall Out Boy, Snow Patrol, The Killers, The Vamps, etc. {3}{4}
Def Jam Recordings founded in 1983 and specialises in hiphop and urban music. The founder is Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons in America. They produce music for 2Chainz, Big Sean, Kanye West, Mariah Carey, etc. {5}{6}

The Director of this music video is Jacqueline London, she also edited the music video. She mostly directs music videos, majour videos she has directed are, Avril Lavigne ft Chad Kroeger- "Let Me Go," P!nk ft Nate Ruess- "Just Give Me a Reason," Michael Jackson- "Hollywood Tonight," and many many more. {7}{8}

At the end of the music video, they have a black screen with white text about the producers. This is at [4:29-4:33]:

Styles:
The What About Now video has a couple of styles to the video, the main style uses live footage, but then in the background they have some digital animation. Throughout the video they show them preparing the stage, Bon Jovi about to walk onto the stage, live concert scenes, you can also see in some scenes the band signing papers for their fans. With all that you can also see in the background of the live concert some animations.

The music video starts off with preparing and Bon Jovi about to walk onto the stage at [0:04];

Then they have animated a molotov cocktail exploding at [0:30], after it explodes thats when the music starts:

After the beat starts at [0:31] you will then see Bon Jovi on the stage playing:

Then at [0:32] you get a shot of the audience:

 Then after you see the band playing a little bit, at [0:41] you see a Banksy style picture animated standing up:

Then at [1:04], they will show you the band signing:

And all of this will show up throughout the whole video.

Conventions
Lyric Interpretation:
Throughout the song you can tell what Bon Jovi is singing about it through the animation behind him for example a few seconds before [0:46] the lyrics said "You want to start a fire" and the animation behind him then throws a molotov and starts a fire. These few seconds extends and confirms what the band has just sung :

 But it doesn't always use animations to confirm what he is saying. For example at [0:48] Bon Jovi sings "You gotta get behind the wheel, if you ever going to drive that car." He then shows at [0:51] the band in a car:

But the song will mostly use the animations for the lyric interpretation. For another example a little later on in the video. At [1:51-1:53] they sing "You want to start a fight," and then at [1:54] you will see a animated fighter:

Then at [1:54-1:57] Bon Jovi sings "you gotta take a swing." And then the animated fighter will swing a punch from [1:56-1:58]:

Techniques:
This song uses a range of techniques, but it mostly uses a CGI background. This background is used throughout the song. As demonstrated earlier in this document.

At times through this song they cut to the beat, at [0:30] after the molotov hits the floor, you get a large guitar and drums beat and it will cut to bon jovi on the stage:

But a part from that little cut to the beat, there is not much else. They are just random cutting between scenes.
They have used playback and lip syncing, you can tell this because they are singing during the live performance, but you can't hear the audience singing along. At [1:44] you can see the audience singing along, but you can hear it through the video:

This video will use two screens, they have the camera screen, but then behind the band, they are singing in front of a Green Screen, this is so we can get both the band and the animations.
For Example at [0:43] you can see the band and behind them is a screen, even though in the video it looks like multiple screens, it is only the camera screen and the green screen:

 And again at [3:12]:

In very few shots during this video, you can see a screen that the stadium has built in to have a close up of the stage for people further back. At [3:48] you can see it giving a close up on Richie Sambora's Guitar:

Zoom Movements:
In the start of the video you see they use the zoom camera movement at [0:00-0:01], they use this to zoom into the Bon Jovi's logo:

At [0:38] The Camera will then zoom in again, this time they zoom into the singer Jon Bon Jovi:

And again at [0:41-0:43]:

And again at [1:19-1:20]:

And finally at [4:17-4:18] you can briefly see the camera zoom out, I have slowed the video down by 50%, this is so its easier to see:

Panning Movements:
There is a lot of panning movements in this music video, here are a few of them:
In the Beginning: From [0:01-0:02] you see them panning away from the cart:

At [0:55-56], you can see them using panning movement to capture the audience:

At [1:29-1:30], you can see them panning from Jon Bon Jovi to the audience:

And finally at [3:27-3:28]- You can see a better panning movement shot of the audience, this one shows more of the stadium:

Handheld Shooting Movements:
Throughout the start of the clips you will see them using handheld movements, they have used these from
[0:03-0:05]:

[0:07-0:10]:

[0:13-0:14]:

[1:14-1:15]:

and [4:22-4:27]:

In all of these clips, they are using the handheld shooting movements when Bon Jovi is walking on and off the stage.
Tilt:
This camera movement is not used a lot in the music video, but it is used at:
[00:56-00:57]- They used it here to show the wires and the setting up of the stadium for their concert:

The rest of the video does not have any camera movements, it is mostly a still video.

Camera Angeles:
There is only three different camera angles they use during this video. These are High Angle, Low Angle and Eye Level.

High Angle Moments:
This angle is used quite a lot during this mostly when the camera is in the stands, this is used to make us feel like we are actually at that concert listening to them live.

1. The first time you see this Angle is at [0:13], you are sitting quite high up and pointing down onto the stage:

2. You then see another audience high angle at [0:53]:

 3. At [1:23] you see it from another position:

4. A few seconds later they use that shot behind the band singing:

5. Further on in the video, at [2:56] you see it again in a different position:

This does look exactly the same as the first one, but you can see a slight difference where the spotlights are placed.
You then see it another two times at [3:42] and [3:44]:

But that don't always use this angle for the eyes of the audience. They use it in the beginning and at the end to show us the set up of the stadium.
At [0:34]:

And At [4:21]:

Low Angle:
I feel this angle is used the least in the video, and its very hard to tell if its angled or Eye Level, this could be to show us that Bon Jovi are a big band and you need to see them live.

The first time you see this angle is at [0:28], it is very slight, but you can see a small tilt:

You can see a large tilt at [0:50]

Again it is a very small tilt at [2:31]

And the final one is at [3:25]:

Eye Level:
This video uses this angle the most during the video, they mostly use it when they are filming the Band, but sometimes you see this angle filming the audience. I will now show you a few clips. a few from the beginning, a few in the middle and few in the end. This is because most of the video uses this angle for the video.


Beginning:
At [00:18] you can see the camera is placed without any tilted angle:

At [00:30] This may look like it has a slight angle, but it is pointing directly at the stage and the band:

At [00:46] and [00:54] you get two good eye level views of Jon Bon Jovi:

Middle:
At [1:44] you can see a eye level few of the audience:

 At [2:14] again there is another one of Jon Bon Jovi:

At [2:19] you will see a eye level shot of Jon Bon Jovi again but this time on a plane:

Ending:
At [3:36] you see an eye level angle of the drummer Tico Torres, they use this angle of him throughout the video:

At [3:56] you can see another eye level view of the audience kissing:

 And at [4:22] they use this angle to show Bon Jovi leaving the stadium:

This video has a fast paced editing style, this made it very difficult to know what angles they have used at certain times.


References:
[1]- History Rocket. (2012). Bon Jovi History. Available: http://www.historyrocket.com/Music-History/Bon-Jovi-History.html. Last accessed 23rd Sep 2014.
[2]-Business Week. (1999). Company Overview of The Island Def Jam Music Group, Inc.. Available: http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=2688916. Last accessed 23rd Sep 2014.
[3]-Independent. (2009). Island: The record label that changed the world.Available: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/island-the-record-label-that-changed-the-world-1676691.html. Last accessed 23rd Sep 2014.
[4]-Island Records. (2014). Artists. Available: http://www.islanddefjam.com/artists/default.aspx?labelID=62. Last accessed 23rd Sep 2014.
[5]-Neate, P. (2011). Def Jam Records launched by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/13/def-jam-launched-simmons-rubin. Last accessed 23rd Sep 2014.
[6]-Def Jam. (2014). Artists Archive Def Jam. Available: http://www.defjam.com/artists/. Last accessed 23rd Sep 2014.

[7]-Gottlieb, S. (2013). Bon Jovi "What About Now" (Jacquelyn London, dir.). Available: http://www.videostatic.com/watch-it/2013/05/01/bon-jovi-what-about-now-jacquelyn-london-dir. Last accessed 23rd Sep 2014.

[8]-SunsetEdit. (2014). Jaquelyn London . Available: http://www.sunsetedit.com/london.html. Last accessed 23rd Sep 2014.