Inspirational music video: Oceans - Seafret

Seafret's tear jerking music video, featuring Maisie Williams, explores themes of bullying, escapism and coming of age, the latter being similar to our own video.

Two main locations are contrasted in this video - indoors/at home and outdoors/in the park. The lighting and costume create a contrast with the protagonist and her surroundings, highlighting her desire to escape her miserable life. We have used the same locations and elements of her costume in a similar attempt to contrast Tayla's daily life with the scenes of her 'escaping' in the forest.

A range of close ups are used, showing the protagonists emotions. This makes the narrative storyline more captivating as the audience feel engaged, following her journey. This is something we could think about, especially in the forest scenes, to grip our audience.

The diegetic sound at the beginning of the video works really well to set the tone of the video and introduce the characters story. We could try this, as it would work well to draw the audience's attention to the themes portrayed in our video. The video has a narrative focus, however the lyric 'we hide our emotions' corresponds with a shot of the girl putting her costume on (below). It seems Seafret's narrative was derived from an abstract perspective of the lyrics, much like ours.

"we hide our emotions"

Mirrors are also frequently shown throughout the video, conforming to Andrew Goodwin's 'notion of looking' - the large bedroom mirror in particular is used to show the character gaining perspective of her own image. This is a technique which we have conformed to in our own video, to represent our performers conflicting thoughts.

Here is the (very emotional) full video:

Fifth filming day: location 4

Today we did some mirror shots, using a vanity mirror and a compact makeup mirror. We felt that using both mirrors helped to give the illusion that Tayla has more than one side to herself - another hint to our audience that her 'demons' are herself.

Using a mirror also introduces the notion of looking, linked to Andrew Goodwin's theory. However, we have not included the voyeuristic treatment of the female body to create sex appeal, inverting Laura Mulvey's male gaze.

In addition, Tayla takes up more of the frame - we have complied with the rule of thirds here, captivating the viewer. It makes the shot look more natural, creating a contrast with our studio shots which have Tayla as the central focal point.

Inspirational music video: 1+1 - Beyonce

1+1 uses a range of different studio shots, with Beyonce shown in rich colours in contrast with the dark background.

 

Beyonce's star image is accentuated using shimmery makeup and clothing, making her appear almost golden. This creates the illusion that she is wealthy or royal - thinks links to her title as 'Queen B' furthering her appeal as a 'star'. We have played around with the lighting of our studio shots to mimic this effect.

Water is used in the video, generating fluidity, movement and sensuality. The water allows the superimposition of two shots to look more effective and natural - the smooth, seamless editing matches the pace of the song. We have also tried to incorporate water, as it is found to look effective in many existing indie music videos.

The lyrics match with the visuals (as shown below); Beyonce addresses us vocally and with her gaze, which links to Goodwin's theory and engages the audience. Our mirror shots will have a similar effect, introducing the notion of looking.

"it's me, and youuuu"

Smoke looks really effective here, slowly filling the room, creating a steamy atmosphere which links to the romantic lyrics. The red filter and soft focus also works to highlight Beyonce's flirtatious presence - the colour red has connotations with desire and lust, emphasizing her sexuality. We have tried to incorporate both smoke and a red filter, as they link to the lyrics of our song and the theme of femininity.

The mirror-like effects fade into one another and fill the frame with images of the performer, presenting her as passionate and dominating. This is an interesting technique which we could apply to our video, to give the idea that she is struggling with herself.

Here is the full video, in which the seamless editing techniques can be seen more clearly:

Inspirational music video: In The Night - The Weeknd

This brilliant new music video from The Weeknd starring Bella Hadid, incorporates a range of techniques which we would like to try and apply to our music video.

First and foremost, I love the colour symbolism in the music video. The use of the colour red, whether it is the camera filter, costume, blood or even the backdrop, all seems to accentuate the idea of female empowerment, which ties in really well with the bloody feminist revenge fantasy narrative. This is something we are trying to emphasize in our own video, to connote femininity.

The element of smoke is also brought about in multiple settings, which looks really effective and adds to the esoteric atmosphere in the video. We have also tried to use smoke, as it links with our lyric "smoke as black as charcoal". The use of superimposition when The Weeknd is signing works to create depth, filling the frame with various images at different focal lengths. This emphasizes his star image and creates an appeal for the artist, linking to Richard Dyer's theory.

 

The notion of looking, or voyeuristic treatment (linked to Andrew Goodwin's theory) of the female body is completely flipped in this video. With Bella playing the role of a gogo dancer at a strip club, the perspective that the audience expect to take is that of the heterosexual male, however the audience are shown shots in both perspectives and the eyes of the dancers themselves are frequently shown glaring in cutaways, which destroys Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' theory and creates a heavy female dominance in the video.

The vintage filter gives the video a retro/ aged look, almost like an old film. The grungy edge, highlights the gritty truths of the underground business which many young women in this area of work are subjected to. This is demonstrated in the screenshot accompanied with the lyric in the caption below, which again links to Goodwin's association between visuals and lyrics.

"yeah she was young and she was forced to be a woman"

A mixture of fast and slow paced editing is used, according to the tempo of the song.

The song is also paused at different points in the video, to draw the audience's attention to the strong narrative storyline. This is a really useful technique which we could apply to our video to engage with our audience. The full video is linked below, in which the quick cuts and montage editing can be seen much more clearly:

Fourth filming day: location 3

We began filming in our third location (Tayla's house) today, to gather the indoor shots.
Our current plan is to apply a monochrome colour palette to the shots in this location. I have edited some still shots from our raw footage below, to test what this might look like...

We have attempted to capture some parallel shots of me and Tayla. We hope to flash or layer these images onto one another in post-production, to hint to our audience that Tayla's 'demons' are in fact, herself:

We have made use of three different parts of Tayla's house in the shots below, including a wide range of angles and framing techniques:

Tayla is looking out towards the trees here, which symbolize escapism in our video.

We really like the shadows created here, as they reflect our performers disoriented state.

"cause when, our demons come"

All in all, we are happy with the range of shots we gathered today. Hopefully they look effective when we tie them in with our existing footage!

Fourth filming day: water shots

In our genre research, we found that one convention of indie music videos is the use of water. In order to conform with our genre, we have decided to explore how we can incorporate water into our video. Rhianne managed to get hold of a tank full of water, oil, paints and some food colouring. She filmed the water experiment and the results look brilliant! Here is a range of still shots from the footage, showing some of the different combinations:

The dissipation of food colouring also looks quite smokey, which ties in with our lyric 'smoke as black as charcoal'. Superimposing these shots onto our other footage, especially where Tayla is singing, could create the illusion that she is 'drowning' in her emotions. iMovie gives us full control of our shot colouration - this is a really useful tool, as we can match it to our colour palette and we won't need to refilm!

Inspirational music video: Papi Pacify - FKA Twigs

FKA Twigs's 'Papi Pacify' employs a monochrome colour palette, with lighting that places emphasizes on her in contrast to her surroundings. We have looked at this video in great detail, in order to produce studio shots with a similar level of professionalism.

The use of shadow is really effective in this video, drawing attention to the performer in her ill-lit surroundings. Wrapped in the embrace of her male counterpart, who is mostly shown out of the frame, FKA Twigs assumes power despite being tense and overwhelmed. This is something we could think about in our forest scenes, to offer the idea that our performer is ultimately a powerful young woman.

The notion of looking is explored in this video, with Twigs' gaze fixed steadily on us, linking to Goodwin's theory. This direct address breaks the 4th wall, creating a connection between the performer and her audience. We plan to use a mirror to create the same effect in our own video.

We really like the shimmery effect created using glitter and flashing lights. In these shots, the performer is given central focus with tiny sparkles bouncing off her skin, giving them 'star image quality' - this conforms to Richard Dyer's theory of star image, helping to create an appeal for the artist. We have used the same framing, composition and lighting techniques in our own studio shots to create a more sophisticated look.

Here is the full video: