Music Video Ideas - summer holiday work

Music video idea 1

Sumer song by Gloucester Road (band) - what are you waiting for (album) 

- Soundcloud (139 listens, 47 followers) 

- Spotify (11 monthly listeners, 21 followers)

 - no music video found 

- released 2020 

- indie/country (genre) 

< click to listen to song 

IDEA: 

- very calm 

- colour themes of yellow, blue, very light to reflect the theme of summer 

- two singers, man and woman

- footage of the sun/sun rings in the camera

- two people in two separate places (bedrooms) when singing, but when singing together back to back

- footage of a couple enjoying time together in the summer, both people wearing black clothes

- the man plays guitar

- shots of the sun shining on a girl and videos with an old style camera shown in instrumental break

^ click to listen to song 

Music video idea 2

Monster by shortcut 2 infinity (band) - monster (album) 

- Band camp 

- Spotify (121 monthly listeners, 2000 followers) 

- no music video found 

- released 2022 

- rock (genre) 

IDEA:

- band playing in a garage

- close ups on each instrument 

- dutch angles, tilts, very unusual camera angles, a lot of zooms

- shots from above them moving across, dont see anyone's face till they start singing

- clips of someone standing in a mask fading in on drums 

Music video idea 3

Power by Honey B McKenna (solo) - Bliss (album name) 

- Band camp 

- Spotify (36 monthly listeners,  70 followers) 

- no music video found 

- released 2022 

- electro pop (genre) 

< click to listen to song 

IDEA:
- glitchy/static visuals and movements 

- colour theme of red black and gold (symbolic of power and revenge) purple tint on some scenes
- start with women in different positions with masks on or mannequins 

- girl looking like she is a puppet, strings tied to her hands looking like a doll, she's been pulled around and manipulated by too many men 

- red lipstick in a black and white background/everything black and white except lips when close up and her whispering 

- scene with mirrors all around her 

- man walks through mirrors and sees her talking to him halfway through the song at some point 

- sitting on a throne for one of final choruses in a black dress, whole scene black and white except for the colour red, red crown, red lipstick, red wine in her hand

- man sitting at the throne before her and she whispers in his ears the lyrics that are whispered and the screen glitches to see her sitting in that same throne with man begging at her feet in some parts 

^ click to listen to song

Music video idea 4

Anybody's girl by Colour TV/Tipper newton (solo) - Anybody’s Girl (album) 

- Band camp 

- Spotify (9,400 streams, 82 monthly listeners, 238 followers) 

- music video: https://youtu.be/6M7QqVp3AGE 

- released 2016 

- rock (genre) 

IDEA:

- very retro theme 

- makeup looking like there's mascara running down her face 

- 1 girl 

- her singing at a concert with a microphone and wire with rest of 

band playing behind her 

- bright multicolours 

- collage of her sitting at a dinner date in a restaurant with a few different guys and none of them being nice/good people (one's self confident, another's disgusting, the other is rude) and footage of her rolling her eyes 

Block Week Exercise - Music Videos

The floor manager is in charge of it all in terms of shooting when there is multiple people shooting at a time.

He shouts “standby” “roll cameras” and then “play back” and the camera operators shout back “standing by” then “camera rolling”.

The play back person presses the button for playback to then play the music after the floor manager saying “playback”.

For the track shots, you sit on the seat like a bicycle, as someone pushes it like a trolley.

Overall you start off with a wide shot, then a middle shot then a close up of the person in the shot.

When using a green screen, you can add any background to the footage, which can be useful if you are on a low budget and can't go to the actual location you want to, however you need to make sure you don't wear any green while in front of the green screen, as well as you need to make sure the green screen is evenly lit all over. 

Digipak Conventions

Analysis of Artwork:

Green day - American Idiot

- binary opposition - Levi Strauss - because the grenade is shaped as a heart, contrast of love and violence

- throw a grenade of love 

- the white and black act as a contrast between light and dark, however the splash of red indicated blood and violence as well as making this colour stand out a lot more 

- their name is in lower case, draws attention to the name of the album 

Fearless - Taylor Swift

- hair looks like a lion's mane, very matching to the title, as well as portrays her curled hair 

- quite flirtatious look, male gaze - Laura Mulvi - can see and accentuates jawline and her shoulders

- colour palette quite the same, simple and pure, almost glowing 

- her name is written in her hand writing, almost like her signature, showing it is from her and written by her

Overall:

- 4-6 'panes'

- Spine

- Colour palette similar to video/social media 

- Branding of star persona

Front Cover:

- image of singer/band on front

- name of singer/band

- name of album

- parental advisory sticker if explicit 

- info about any bonus material included eg extra tracks, behind the scenes, music videos, etc. 

Inside Front Cover:

- other image/background

- possibly any of the following:

- thanks

- credits for crew involved

- message to fans

- lyrics to a song 

- info about artist 

Spine:

- name of singer

- name of album 

- record label logo

Inside back cover:

- other image/background 

- space for disk to be inserted

Back Cover:

- other image 

- track listing 

- barcode

- record label info 

- copyright information 

Key points:

- the music videos are for a song on the album, not the whole album

- there is a connection, but its not a direct takeaway 

The Video:

- establishes the genre 

- creates the star image 

- represents the ideology of the band/artist 

- links to the album

Back Covers examples:

My first try at making a Digipak - Canva

(The CD goes in the 3rd slide)

Guessing album covers and artists

1. dont know, dont know (0)

2. dont know, the Beatles (1)

3. dont know, Daft Punk (1)

4. dont know, ACDC (1)

5. don't know, don't know (0)

6. don't know, don't know (0)

7. don't know, Rolling Stones (1)

8. Queen 2, QUEEN (2)

9. 21, Adele (1)

10. Nevermind, Nirvana (2)

9/20 :)

Analysis of "Bring me to life" music video

- music doesn't start until 0:07, sound of wind blowing during silence of music

- nighttime, however a spooky nighttime because of wind and dark clouds with slight blue tint, adding cold atmosphere 

- camera flying through CGI buildings, dark atmosphere, dark clouds in the sky, representative of singer's dark feelings, reflects mood of song 

- city sounds faint during music, sound of police sirens 

- camera flies closer to a window of a run down apartment building that is open with the curtains flapping in the wind, shows which and what type of house the person we're focusing on lives in

- camera goes into window and goes still, wide shot of bedroom and a woman asleep in the bed 

- cuts to the same woman asleep and falling from a building, the tone of colour of film is very dark and has hints of blue, making it look cold/death like, matching to the name of the song

- different angles of woman sleeping in bed again, dutch angles, makes it uncomfortable/sense of danger

- by cross cutting between the falling and the bed it shows the woman is possibly dreaming, there is an apparent theory that if we have a dream where we're falling and falling it's because our body thinks we are dying and when we wake up before hitting the ground our body thinks we are dead so wakes us up to make sure

- woman keeps struggling during her sleep, showing discomfort, same as when someone has a nightmare, is evidently scared 

- the cuts get shorter between the two scenes, matching the build up of instruments and sound of the song 

- after the lyrics "back home" the camera flies back out of the room and does a wide establishing shot of building, but we can see other people in the windows, and then the camera quickly zooms into another window of a band

- we see the band of the song playing in the room on beat of chorus starting

- woman opens her eyes, matching the lyrics "wake me up inside"

- woman walks towards window, almost ghost like and as if she is dead or sleepwalking 

- cutting between the two scenes, the band playing and the woman, the woman sings the woman's lines in the song, showing she is the main singer of the band and song 

- band is wearing black dark clothes, woman is wearing a white silk night dress with white curtains, which would usually be shown as purity, but this could be resembling ghosts and death because the curtains look ghostly while flapping in the wind

- camera does swirling motions when focusing on the woman in the room 

- every time between the verses and choruses and bridge there is the sound of wind 

- woman starts walking at edge of building, with wide angles and one below angle shot while she walks around corner of building confidently, almost dreamily but while looking sad but smiling, her hair and dress are flowing in the wind, making her seem like a supernatural being, separate from the world as she walks past other people's windows

- walks past a window of a colourful party, contrasts to theme of song and atmosphere of music video, emphasises the darkness of song and how separate this woman is, reflects conflict and isolation in her head

- people at party are wearing creepy masks however, which adds and brings back the spooky nature of the video 

- could represent the masks people wear and the fake smiles people have to put on for other people while feeling awful inside, shown further when one of the people takes off the mask and shows running mascara down their face 

- band shown only during the chorus when they actually sing in the song, not shown as part of the storyline or meaning, but we see them aggressively playing the music 

- we see her walk past a window from inside the room, her figure is faint and glowing slightly with a white rim around her, shows she is possibly a ghost, reflecting and visually showing the song title and lyrics of chorus

- camera does moving dutch angles when showing the band and her as she walks and climbs up building 

- she is climbing up to the room that the band are playing in

- she stays outside the room on the edge of the building, but leans against the different windows, does this very elegantly, very ghost like, the band cannot see her, matching lyrics "frozen inside without your touch, without your love", possibly showing she is separate and being kept from love

- she stays outside the room for a while during the bridge, with close ups of her face and the odd wide shot so we can see the band in the windows 

- shot from inside room, as is we are looking through window to her and see reflection of member of the band looking at her sadly as she looks inside lovingly and longingly 

- she falls as he starts singing after opening the window and is going to get her 

- he looks very annoyed with himself, almost reflecting lyrics "all of this time, I can't believe I couldn't see, kept in the dark but you were there in front of me", showing he didn't see her in the window as did no-one else as she walked past

- he is lead singer of the guy band, with her being lead singer of whole band 

- he drops her and screams/chants "I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside", showing anger of him dropping her, music dies out once she reaches the bottom, showing she has died too

- camera follows her from below her as she falls to ground, we don't see her reach the bottom, but there is then a wide shot of him sitting on edge of building, he goes back inside the room with the band, all of them looking sad

- sound of wind and sirens play again at the end showing life is carrying on as normal for everyone else

Workshop 3 - first videos

We looked at the first videos of a few artists for this workshop, who are now big solo artists and bands, so we could see how their first music videos were created to show their image and portray their style and brand of artist to the world, and compare it to how they have changed today.

Lady Gaga - Just Dance:

the label is clearly trying to give the vibe of a party, with Lady Gaga bringing it back to life, with the light of the camera being made to look like a flash, usually used to record in a party, making the music video exhibit a realistic look, showing lady gaga is loud and adventurous. 

Katy Perry - I kissed a girl:

This is showing Katy Perry as sexy and fun loving. There is also a lot of male gaze by proxy - male gaze for women, to show them this is why what men look for. There is also some irony of the fact she has kissed a girl in the lyrics, so could also be the stereotype of men sexualising lesbian relationships to draw in that audience so her music gets listened to more. Beaty lighting, soft, pinks, lens-flares, all very girly.

Arctic Monkeys - I bet you look good on the dance floor:

This video is very simple with just the band playing, almost like it's live even though it probably isn't, also you can see the other cameras in shot. They are trying to make the point that they’re just about the music and for the audience to only listen to the music, instead of wearing extravagant clothes with big sets, which is also shown by the lead of the band saying "don't get the hype". Cheap to make and unique in its own way because they aren’t even trying to compete, and is still interesting to watch despite the minimal attributes.