Jason Mraz - I'm Yours

Track: I'm Yours
Artist: Jason Mraz
Director: Eric Wareheim

The music video begins with an establishing shot of an airport with a commercial airplane featured, immediately suggesting that the video will have a ‘holiday’ feel to it. During the build up to the start of the song, there are short takes of various things, such as Jason Mraz (the artist) looking out of the plane window, and CU’s of road signs and water. This allows the audience to start having an idea of where the music video may be set.

As the music begins, there is juxtaposition in terms of setting, as it changes from the sunny atmosphere of an external location, to the darker atmosphere of an internal location. The shots are fairly long, focusing on the artist preparing to go out, keeping in time with the pace of the song. Mainly CU’s and MS’s are used to keep a sense of mystery – the audience is yet to find out where he is going – with the artist never fully shown on camera. Additionally, there is a shot where the artist is shown fiddling with a key (presumably to the apartment he is in) and then simply throwing it on the table and not taking it with him, suggesting to the audience that he isn’t intending on coming back and is out to seek adventure, allowing the audience to gain insight into the artists personality.

Following this is a travel montage (destination still unknown to the audience) of the artist in a taxi, on the plane, and then hitch-hiking and jumping into the back of a person’s pick-up truck (whether or not he knows them isn’t obvious at this point which ties in with the sense of adventure). The whole time the artist is singing the lyrics of the song, making it a mixed-style music video as it features both a narrative and a performance. At this point it’s obvious that the music video is trying to emphasize the chilled persona of Jason Mraz and promoting him as a happy-go-lucky type of person.

The setting then changes again as the journey finishes and the artist finds himself in an empty swimming pool which the people he’s with start too skateboard in. The footage is edited in such a way that it changes from shot to shot to match the beat of the music, which is very effective as it keeps you hooked on what is happening. The artist is shown talking and socializing with some people as the others skate, with brief shots of an exotic looking waterfall whilst they talk, allowing the audience to see the topic of conversation without having to actually hear it (as this would take away focus from the song).


After being shown a glimpse of the next location, the artist leaves with the new people he’s met. An effective shot used is when there is a lyric on the song saying “loved” and then a shot of the artist making a love heart shape out of his fingers as he sings it (refer to video – 1:33)

Chosen Brief

After much deliberation, I've decided to go with brief 1 - a promotion package for the release of an album - rather than an advert. This is because I find it an exciting prospect to be able to create a piece of footage to go along with something that is an important aspect of my life - music.

The specification for this brief requires copyright-free music to be used for the music video, so this means having to find an unsigned band/solo artist. However, as a musician myself I feel that my music video will benefit more from an original piece that I will write and produce myself as this will give me ultimate freedom in the sense of the genre and style of my music video. Additionally, I have chosen to recruit my friend Joanna Grimshaw to accompany me on the track as a duet to have a varied vocal range to give a 'fuller' sound. Furthermore, having a female feature in the song will increase the audience that my music video will appeal to.

The genre of music I have chosen is acoustic / alternative. Much like the work of Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Cas Haley, etc. I will try and combine snappy, catchy guitar with soft harmonies to create a very chilled song with a happy-go-lucky kind of feel - perfect as a summer tune.

With this genre of music in mind, I will now have to research those of a similar style to see what music videos of this genre generally entail and then expand on that to come up with an original idea of my own.

Narrowing It Down a Bit...

After considering all the briefs, I have no narrowed it down to my two favourites, these being briefs 1 & 3. I have chosen these 2 specifically as they appeal to me most as it's an area of media which I have no past experience in and will therefore be a healthy challenge in terms of knowledge and skill to be able to complete successfully.

Why Advertising?
I think that to be able to produce something with the power to influence someone's choice within a brief moment is a very intriguing thing. I would find it an interesting prospect to see what ideas I could come up with to advertise certain products and how persuasive they could be toward consumers.

Example of the style of television advert I would wish to produce:



Product: Dairy Milk
Company: Cadbury
Director: Tom Kuntz

This style of advert is interesting as it doesn't directly relate to the product per say, but due to the way in which it's humorous and unique, it's instantly memorable and will therefore remind the public of the product each time they remember it. I also enjoy the way in which it's so lighthearted as I think that adverts which are too serious lose their appeal.

Example of the style of music video I would wish to produce:

Track: Electric Feel
Artist: MGMT
Director: Ray Tintori

Decisions, decisions...

For A2, we are required to work individually instead of groups as we did last year, and instead of a single task with which we had no leeway, we now have 6 different briefs to choose from. Before I can begin research, I must first consider each brief and decide upon 2 or 3 which I would be interested in doing and then proceed from there.

Brief 1

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, no longer than five minutes duration, together with:

- a cover for its release on DVD

- a magazine advertisement for the DVD

Brief 2

A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with:

- a film magazine front cover, featuring the film

- a poster for the film

Brief 3

An advertising package for a new product or service, to include two TV advertisements, together with

- a radio advertisement

- a web pop-up

Brief 4

A promotion package for a new soap opera, to include a TV trailer, together with:

- a listings magazine front cover featuring the new soap

- a poster for the soap

Brief 5

A selection of materials related to an original children's TV drama, to include the title sequence to the TV programme, together with:

- the front cover to a magazine for the series

- a DVD cover for the series

Brief 6

A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animation or a combination of both, together with:

- a poster for the film

- a film magazine review page featuring the film

It's a New Year...

As I am starting A2 Media Studies, it was necessary to create a new blog for this year's coursework.

Click on the link below to see what i've done in the past...

AS