Music Video Preparation

Firstly, we had to decide on an artist to represent in our music video. So we went away and came back with some suggestions and shared them with the group. We decided our best option would be to go with a band  who were local and who Sapir knew called 'The Naked Recreation' with their own songs 'Stain'. As a backup, we also emailed Gabrielle Aplin about using her song 'Human', she is a songwriter known for her hit songs such as 'Panic Chord' and 'Power Of love' however her record label never got back to us, we also emailed an American Band called Ten Sleep to see if we could use their song 'Tired step' who did get back to us, however we decided by this point to stick with The Naked Recreation as we already had ideas for the song. However we were still waiting for a reply from them to officially confirm to film with us as we wanted to include them in the video itself. After waiting 3 days for a reply we decided that we needed to move along quickly and so made the decision to contact another Singer song writer who is local to our area. We decided not to go with Ten Sleep due to reasons such as they aren't going to be in the video, and also we couldn't think of a concept which would match them as a band. Therefore we contacted Gianluca Volpe and he got back to us a couple of hours later saying he would love to be involved in our music video which in turn would promote himself as an artist. A day later we got a reply from the Naked Recreation stating that they would be unable to film with us. This made things alot simpler and we now were able to get on to deciding what concept we would like for Gianluca's Original song 'Your Place Used To Be Mine'.






   <-----    Here are some Images of Conversations i had with Gianluca when asking for Permission and taking part in our music video, others are confirming dates for recording studio. Furthermore we kept him up to date with the music video and what to expect.                                                         ---------->

 <-------------                                                      
                                                                                             
                                                                               ---------- >    

 <-----------                                                                




                                                                                    --------->











We then started to think of a concept for the video itself. We analysed the lyrics to the song and came to to the conclusion that it was about a relationship that no longer was working for either of the two people. We had already decided that we needed a performance based  concept with a bit of narrative.

We then needed a location for filming. During the process of waiting for a response from the Naked Recreation I had already booked a pub for them to film in, however once they had said they couldn't film with us, we were thinking of canceling our booking with the pub. But once we had a confirmed response from Gianluca we decided that the pub would also suit his style and therefore kept the venue. We then decided that we were going to film our narrative part to the music video in 2 different locations: 1) Tower Bridge 2) Burnham Beeches. However after contacting the city of London to get permission to film on Tower Bridge we would have to pay £250 to film for 1 hour and therefore decided to rule this out. We still wanted to film on a bridge so began to look else-where. We eventually found a small bridge near to where we live and some girls had filmed there for their film openings so we knew we wouldn't need permission. After much thought about the bridge idea, we then decided to not film there at all as we thought we needed to keep the video itself simple and 2 locations would be enough. We then contacted Burnham Beeches and asked if it would be possible to film there, they said that it would be fine as long as we send them pictures of where we would like to film before we go and shoot.

We have planned to go and take some shots of both locations in the next few weeks and also get Gianluca into a recording studio so that we can have a high quality track of the song, as the one we have currently isn't as high quality as we would like it for the backing to our music video .





After our shots of each location were taken, we the uploaded them on to the computer. When looking through our shots we noticed that the pub setting had very warm colours due to the lighting,however Burnham beeches was very green. Therefore we decided that this again was no longer a suitable location as the two different colours were not going to match well in the final video, even through colour grading. This again left us without a 2nd location to shoot our video. However a few weeks later, I found a location that was both public and had warm colour. We then decided this was going to be our final location for our music video

Burnham Beeches

As shown on this image the pictures at the top are from the bounty and the ones on the bottom are from Burnham Beeches

We are very happy with our decisions for our music video, although we were initially a week behind the other group with our complications with our artists, but we eventually caught up with them and now on track to producing our music video.







The Bounty where we will be shooting our performance part of our music Video

The 2nd location where we will be shooting our narrative part of our music video

Story Boarding and Shot list


Below are the story boards for our narrative part of our music video

Shot list 

Reacting To Music

Firstly we listened to 'For your love' by Josh Records. we each took a pen and some paper and began to draw whatever came into our mind when listening to the song. For my interpretation i used lines to express the soft music, yet the harsh lyrics that the man is singing. i used sharp points to show the chorus when his voice becomes higher in pitch and the louder music. The more softer lines that are at the bottom show the slowness of the song and the rawness of his voice.


Below is the image of my drawing that i did

We then listened to 'Pelican' by The Maccabees. This song is much more up beat and has a fast tempo. To show this, my lines were alot bigger and the page was a lot busier than the first song we listened to. The over lap that i created in the bottom left was to show the soft guitar beats over the heaver drum beats near the end of the song.

Below is the picture for the drawing

We then had to write down a rough idea of what the music video would look like for this song. For the first song  i thought  it would be performance based with a element of narrative. I decided that there would be slow dynamic camera movements which are smooth and perhaps on a track, with wide/landscape shots to show the surrounding area. I thought it would be set in some kind of street or urban place. I said that the lighting would be low perhaps in a black and white or sepia effect. i also said there would be alot of close ups of the artist singing, and the artist himself would be dressed in everyday relaterable clothes. I also thought that it would be an emotional video. I then moved onto the next song, for this one I thought that it would be performance based with an element of concept. The song itself is quick and up tempo and so i thought that it would have to match this with quick cuts, I also thought it would be bold with bright colours.



We then watched the two videos


For Your Love -Josh Record










Pelican- The Maccabees











For the First song by Josh Record, i seemed to be pretty close with my predictions. However The Maccabees music video took me by surprise as i wasn't expecting that kind of music video, although i did enjoy it. In both music videos there was relationships between the lyrics and visuals, in Josh's video, we could see him singing the song and this therefore shows a relationship. In The Maccabees video however there wasn't anyone singing but at the end when every image reversed back to the start of the music video it matched the lyrics 'going back to where we came from' and so this show a relationship between the visulas and the lyrics.

Types Of Music Videos

Firstly, we looked at the conventions of music videos and how Camera Shots, Camera Movement, Mise-en-scene and Editing changed for music videos rather than films. We also looked at some other important categories such as Lighting,Sound,Props,Costume and Colour influence a music video.

We then looked at different genres of music and how conventions change, for example in Indie/Rock music there tends to be low light and sometimes even black and white whereas in Pop videos colours are bright and stand out alot more, this is because colour tends to set the mood of songs by creating an atmosphere.

After this, we looked at Andrew Goodwin and his ideas of features to make a successful music video. Andrew Goodwin wrote a book called 'Dancing In The Distraction Factory' in 1992 and in the book he identifies certain key features of a music video such as a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative,amplifying or contradicting ) also he states that there is often intercultural
references ( to film,TV programmes and other music videos). Goodwin also said that music videos can be Performance-based, Narrative-based or Concept- based and sometime with elements of 2 such as performance based with some narrative or concept based with some performance.

After looking at Andrew Goodwin's key features we then looked at some Music videos which incorporated some of the things we had just read about. The first one we looked at was 'American Idiot' by Green Day


American Idiot- Green Day




We Decided that the genre for this music was Punk, we can tell this from the hard drums and guitar sounds at the beginning and running throughout, it is fast paced which matches with the fast cuts in the video. We can also tell this is punk genre of music due to the costumes the band is wearing, they are all wearing black and Billie Joel is wearing a red tie which contrast with the black suite that he is wearing but also the toxic green coloured background. This Music video is performance based and toxic green backdrop emphasizes the name of the band 'Green Day'. There are many motifs in this video, one of Goodwin's features of a music video, such as the heart hand grenade, the american flag highlighting the name of the song 'American Idiot' and the green paint that pours from the backdrop. Another thing that Goodwin said was that there would be  concept of looking, in this video it breaks the 'Fourth wall', this is when we can see Billie Joel through another camera screen right at the beginning of the video. Furthermore, there are alot of close ups on the lead singer, Billie Joel, and there are lots of wide shots of the band and the green American flag  to make sure the audience feels connected and puts emphasis on the artist,location and emotions. Billie Joel is lip syncing through the whole video and the close ups show these. Pictures below shows the close ups and the wide shots of the band and backdrop of the flag

Here It Goes Again- OK,Go






We then looked at a concept based music video by OK, Go. in this video we can see the band dancing around on treadmills with the song playing in the background. This Music Video has no relevance to the song what so ever, there is no relationship between lyrics and visuals as no one is singing or doing anything close to the lyrics. However there might be a relationship between the music and visuals as they are dancing on the beats and pace of the music. There could be a motif of the treadmill in this video as each member does dance on them. there is no intertextual relationships or notion of looking. Although this video hasn't got anything to do with the song, its interesting and unique and that's what make it memorable.

Always-Bon Jovi






We then looked at a Narrative based with an element of performance music video. In this video, there was a relationship between the lyrics and visuals as you can see Bon Jovi singing the words on the video, furthermore there is a relationship between the music and visuals as its telling a story. There are close ups of Bon Jovi while he sings to. Furthermore there are some references to sexual objects as the woman is being painted and filmed. There are also the notion of looking as there are screens within screens in this music video. The pictures below show Bon Jovi singing and also the two characters who play the roles of the man and woman mentioned in the song.

5 Colours In Her Hair 







We also looked at another Performance based music video but it had an element of narrative in. Again in this music video its up tempo and catchy, its a pop song and so has bright colours. Due to it being performance based there is a relationship between visuals and lyrics as we can see Tom and other members of the band singing the song. There is a reference to the notion of looking as there is a TV screen in which the band come through. There are close ups on the which ever member is singing at the point in the song and wide shot to show the whole band. There is also intertextual references to the Beatles when the band cross the road on a zebra crossing. Below is a picture showing the wide shot to show all members of the band.

Interpreting Music

Firstly we listened to a song, we didn't know the name or the artist to this song, however we were asked to write down how the song made us feel, writing down different emotions and thoughts that we had about the song. After listening to it several times we then were asked to think of a music video and briefly storyboard our ideas.
 My idea was very simplistic as i thought the song itself was simplistic with only a guitar his voice and the occasional beats from a tambourine. I decided in my music video for this particular song that the man would be caring his guitar around to different places and each place you would see him performing parts of the song. These different places consisted of a wood and streets etc with him eventually finishing the song in a retro bar on a stool.

After we completed this task individually we then shared our ideas and realised  how similar all of our music video storyboards were, all with elements of performance ,narrative and context. We then understood that all music videos follow conventions and to be successful we must have an element of narrative/context with performance.

After doing this task, we then were given the lyrics to the song along with the name of the artist. We then analysed the lyrics and changed anything from our storyboard that we felt necessary. At first i though the song was happy with a catch chorus and verses however, once i looked at the lyrics and saw the repetition of the world 'Gun' used lot along with words such as 'crash' and 'blast' I took a different look on the song as a whole and changed my opinions slightly, deciding that it wasn't a happy song as I first thought but perhaps a sad song bout lovers in conflict. However I still thought that this song had hope in and was about a journey so i decided that my storyboard wasn't going to change apart from darkening the colours in the music video.

Next, we viewed the the actual music video for the song 'Life Is A Gun' by Jay Malinowski. The music video itself is very different from what i expected, firstly its all in black and white, while i pictured colour, furthermore it has no performance in it just a strong narrative that fixates around this couple. After i watched it I had many ideas as to what it could be interpreted as; i thought that it might be an abusive relationship or something that starts as fun  ( taking the gun ) but becomes more serious as the male starts to get agitated about her taking the gun and she is just reacting to his behavior. Someone suggested that they could be two people who have committed a crime and now have to stay together to keep another safe