Final Potential Songs for the Music Video

We have narrowed down the songs we could potentially use for our music video to three songs and are now discussing which one of the three we will be using. All of these songs fit in our genre well and are of an appropriate length for us to maximise our time and maintain a high quality throughout the entire video oppose to having an excellent start to a video with a poor standard end. Another concern for us when choosing a song to use was how involved are band could get into the song when performing in the video, so we had to ensure that the band members liked any song we could potentially choose. To overcome this, we discussed our song choice with the band members to see which songs they would prefer and only considered artists that they enjoy and know.

25 Word Music Video Pitch

Indie/Alternative Genre Mood-board

 

I created this mood-board as a way of presenting the inspiration I have used in choosing the genre of the music video and these artists are were inspiration will be drawn from when creating the music video.

Music Video Pitch

Music Video Textual Analysis: Frank Ocean- Lost

Lost is from Frank Ocean's first studio album "Channel Orange"and falls into the Alternative R&B/Hip Hop. The genre of this song/album is quite difficult to distinguish but despite this I think this video implements some good features and follows some conventions of the Indie/Alternative genre which is the genre I will be basing my own music video on hence the reason for this analysis.

This song, a long with the rest of the album, has some very deep and subtle meanings behind it. Reading deeper into the lyrics it can be seen that many themes are being explored by Ocean such as his cynicism towards relationships due to his exposure to "adult ideas" whilst growing up. This song also hints at themes of trying to escape the same monotonous destiny as everyone else whilst still carrying on the pimp-hooker relationship characterisation from the song Pyramids.

Although this video may conform to conventions of several different genres, I am going to look specifically at the Indie/Alternative conventions that are conformed to as that my chosen genre. Elements of the Indie/Alternative genre can be seen throughout the video which shows how Ocean's genre is mixed and rather undistinguishable.

The video itself is mainly narrative but also with elements of performance. With the video being disjunctive, there are no relations between lyrics and visuals but the visuals do portray Frank Ocean's persona, mannerisms and gives the audience an insight to what his personality may be like. Coupled with the song, I think this type of video works well as it would be hard for an artist to illustrate the lyrics in a song such as this with some quite deep meanings behind them.

In terms of the relationship between the music and the visuals, the shots change in time with the back beat of the song which makes the disjunctive video seem to fit the audio. Also, as with many music videos, the lip syncing parts of the video connect the music to the visuals and also make the video seem more conjunctive.

Throughout the video there are many close ups of Ocean from differing angles in different scenarios as the video is Ocean and his associates casually exploring a number of different cities. This works well as the video appears very natural and not forces which eliminates the chance of bad actors/acting which can quite obviously ruin a music video. In all of Ocean's videos, the star image motifs would probably be Ocean's distinct dress sense which many of his followers would attempt to replicate. This is a reoccurring feature through many of his videos and is a good way to draw an audience to his videos as they would want to see his clothing throughout the video so they could attempt to copy it.

In reference to the "Notion of Looking" (a theory from Andrew Godwin- 1992), there aren't any clips which show females acting seductively even though some lyrics may have suggested that there may have been some such as "Double D, Big full breast on my baby" but as this video is rather disjunctive there were no visuals to illustrate this lyric.

Overall, this video is disjunctive with no real relevance or reference to the lyrics although there are a few relations between the music and the visuals as previously discussed. As far as effectiveness, I think the disjunctive nature of the video works well with this particular song as the lyrics would be difficult (and maybe slightly inappropriate for some audiences) to illustrate through the visuals of the video.

Music Video Textual Analysis: Foals -Olympic Airways

Olympic Airways is a song from Foal’s debut studio album “Antidotes” and falls into the Indie/Alternative genre. The video for this song is a mix between a performance and a narrative video with elements of both working well together to create a video, which, in my opinion, works well and has given me inspiration for my own final piece.

This song is generally about the theme of escapism. The song name suggests this, as Olympic Airways is a reference to a Greek Air Company, which is Yannis’ (the lead singer) home country. There are also further elements, which illustrate this theme visually throughout the video.

This video follows many conventions found in videos of the same/similar genre such as a natural environment as a background, a performance from the band and elements of mise en scene to reinforce the genre to the audience (clothing, hairstyles, props etc.).

However, the video also defies conventions found in music videos from its genre with the use of some unusual and quirky props that would not be commonly found in other videos such as the child’s tricycle, hula-hoop and mattress. Although these props may have been used for a greater purpose (maybe to symbolise and illustrate certain things to the audience) they go against conventions of Indie/Alternative music videos, as they would not be commonly used within them. Also, the shots of the band smashing up the props defies conventions of Indie/Alternative music videos and is something that would be found more commonly in more heavy Rock videos oppose to Indie Rock genre that Foals fall into.

 Throughout the video there are many simple relationships created between the lyrics and the visuals. For instance, the first line of the song “Suns up, we wait” the sun is out whilst a band member is sat is field and appears to waiting. This immediately shows to the audience that the video is not disjunctive and is relevant to the song and lyrics. Furthermore, throughout the lyric “disappear, disappear, disappear” a band member is falling onto a mattress which could be a metaphorical way of showing to the audience that he is trying to “disappear” which then fits into the lyrics playing over the visual.

 

The camerawork in the video consists of many different shots. There are close ups of the band playing the instruments and of the singer lip syncing which is very typical of this genre and is expected from a performance video. Also incorporated are long shots of the band, which add a new dimension to the video and give the audience a wider angle of perspective. There is a mixture of static and panning shots throughout the video, which is again a convention, found in videos of the Indie/Alternative genre. The shot length in Olympic Airways is generally longer than heavier rock music videos due to the pace of the song and this works well and fits the music.

The video on a whole is an amplification video as the band are metaphorically trying to escape by causing carnage and disarray within a forested area which fits in with the meaning behind the lyrics through a creative interpretation by the director. Therefore, the audience will have to look slightly further into the video to grasp the meaning behind it making it an amplification video oppose to an illustrative video. 

Music Video Textual Analysis: Metronomy- Heatbreaker

This song falls into the ‘Indietronica’ genre and is from Mentronomy’s second album “Nights Out”. The song was also released as a single and is one of Mentronomy’s most well known songs.

Lyrically, the song is about the a male who has previously suffered in a love triangle and the situation is repeating itself (shown by the lyrics “back to the start again”) as the girl, who is already in a relationship with his friend, is trying to flirt with him. The lyrics could be referring the woman involved as a prostitute with the lyrics “friends in the business” and with this knowledge he then warns the other male of this and attempts to console him for his loss.

Typical of its genre, the video follows the convention of a narrative based music video with performance elements such as lip-syncing. As seen throughout many music videos in the ‘Indietronica’ genre, the band do not appear in the video in full and do not perform. The video is illustrative as it illustrates the meaning of the lyrics so the viewer can easily interpret the meaning of the song. Another convention of the ‘Indietronica’ genre is conformed to with the clothing (thin ties) and hairstyles of the actors in the video, as it is quirky and what would be considered ‘cool’ and ‘modern’ which is seen in many other videos of the same genre.  Also, what can both be considered as an old and vintage/retro, the car and tape machine used in the video. These elements conform to the conventions found in music videos of the genre as it fits in with the lifestyle, which would be considered fashionable by followers and fans of the genre.

The story of the video is that a man has had his ‘heat broken’ by a break up with a woman and his friends are trying to console him by taking him on a road-trip to the seaside, zoo and countryside.

The use of mise en scene in the car is clever as it gives the car a quirky feel and gives the video a bit of an interesting indie edge that fits in with the genre of the song and this benefits the video as if it was just a normal car, it would not have the same effect. This mise en scene is created through various colourful props throughout the car.

They travel to what appears to be a deprived old English seaside town, which has past its prime time. The mise en scene in the town presents the town as run down and old fashioned which matches the car used and also the ‘indie’ theme of vintage and retro items and locations, which reoccurs throughout. The men look out of place in this town, as they are young, dressed in full suits and well presented. The town is the complete opposite of this and the two are juxtaposed which could be a hint to the depressed member that he is still young and he has a lot more time to find someone else.  The shot used here is an establishing shot as it establishing the location to the viewing but could also be classed as a long shot. The man who is grieving is stood slightly further apart from the other two, which could connote his sense of loneliness.

This is my favourite shot from the video as they are walking from the car towards the beach.  The camera remains still with the car in a medium shot whilst the men walk away into the distance. The shot works so well because even though the shot is so simple, there is a lot to look at and take in. The blue sky and the clouds, the sea, beach, grass, men and car all combine into the one shot, which is very effective. I think this shot works really well given the scenario of the video and is something I would like to replicate in my final product.

This long shot is so simple yet effective as the other two men walk off, the saddened man remains starting at the sea for a couple of seconds which implies to the viewer that he is deep in thoughts as he takes a few seconds to realise the others have started to walk off. This shows his has a lot on his mind and is an effective way of illustrating the lyrics.