Julia and I began our research into the use of titles in music videos by looking for any titles in Purity Ring’s music videos; we found none. Thus we have looked at similar artists Grimes and MGMT (top and bottom left images) and two other titles. The top right image is taken from Talisco’s ‘Run’ music video, specifically from part one, the music video to ‘Sorrow.’ We looked at this video as part of our research into short story music videos, though the title stood out to us as particularly impressive. We are also looking at the title to Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ music video. There are many similarities and differences between the titles, but overall our research has shown us that each title seen here correlates directly to the themes, characters and mood within the music videos.
All of these four titles appear on screen at the beginning of the music video, introducing the product. However, the titles to ‘Telephone’ and ‘Run’ are part of a series of titles that resemble the opening sequence to a film. This is because both of these examples are short films, music videos with an established narrative, spanning a time greater than the song they promote; ‘Run’ is made up of three sons in total, whereas ‘Telephone’ has scenes that do not feature the song as non-dietetic sound, and instead have dialogue. As a result, the title to Run occurs 1 minutes and 20 seconds into the video, after a short introduction to the narrative and the other titles. The title to ‘Telephone’ occurs before the song starts, as part of an opening sequence made up of mostly establishing shots. The titles to ‘Genesis’ and ‘Kids’ are far simpler; these two shorter videos do not have title sequences. Instead, ‘Genesis’ is the only title the the song Genesis and ‘MGMT’ and ‘Kids’ are the only titles to the song Kids. Interestingly, Grimes herself is not introduced in the titles to ‘Genesis.’ As well as this, both of these songs have introductions in the music videos that are not present on the albums; the actual songs start after the titles in three of these four examples. ‘Run’ is the only title to appear during a song, though ‘Run’ is made up of three songs and thus there is no need to add an introduction and make the video substantially longer.
Thus Julia and I can see that, based on these examples, titles typically occur before a song has started, introducing a text before it has begun. Julia and I feel that we would be unable to do this, and thus we would have to have our titles (of which there would only be ‘Amenamy’ and ‘Purity Ring’ at most, at the beginning of our song, before the performance element begins.)
Font, Size, Colour and Transitions
The fonts reflect the nature of the artist and music video. For example, the titles to ‘Telephone’ are relatively large, but in a font that features a telephone dial as the ‘o,’ reflecting the name and lyrics in the song. The colours are playful and light-hearted, in pink and yellow, and the titles swipe onto the screen, creating an overall fun and not very serious title. The narrative within the music video is also playful; though Lady Gaga plays a character who is freed from jail, meets up with Beyonce and poisons a cafe of people, it is not particularly serious. The titles to ‘Kids’ appear to look like green lights. Though this has little to do with the video, which is a reflection on the greed and selfishness of people, seen through the eyes of a toddler, this does reflect the futuristic style of the actual band. Julia and I are not particularly interested in creating a title that resembles these and instead feel as though the titles to ‘Run’ and ‘Genesis’ are much more appropriate inspirations for our own. ‘Run’ cuts onto the screen with the chorus, giving it power through the use of the song. It is white in a simple capitalized font that then fades out, as there is no distinct beat to cut it back out. The title to ‘Genesis’ does the same, appearing suddenly, then fading the black with the clip in the background. It is, again, white, in a simple font, though it takes up much more of the screen than ‘Run’ does. Both of these music videos are relatively serious, thus the titles are not playful or colourful. All of the titles are centred, thus Julia and I know that when we create our own, they will also be centred.
Julia and I can apply this research to the creation of our own titles; having completed this research we feel as though we should feature a title at the beginning of our sequence. However, we have not yet discussed in detail what kind of title we would like.
snowghoul
yousharknotpass
amandla
romaincrisis
jacobvanloon
dailybridgerton
titsay