Most indie music videos have titles, introducing both the name of the artist/band and the title of the song. Usually, these appear at the beginning of the music video, or at least within the first 30 seconds. Here are some examples from existing media products to help us figure out how we will present our own titles...
Amber Run and Swim Deep have used their logos rather than text to present their band identity:
Wolf Alice and MGMT use interesting fonts which tie in with their visuals:
Arctic Monkeys and Bombay Bicycle Club have only included the name of the song at the beginning of the video, tying in with the narrative of their videos:
Grimes and Halsey have used text in another language to present their titles in a more concise way:
Bastille and Kodaline use bold, simple, white font for their titles, presented on the establishing shots in their video.
Banks and The Velvet Teen use interesting fonts to present their names giving the audience an idea of their individual quirk:
Of Monsters and Men and PVRIS use the symbols present on their album/digipaks to create synergy through a motif, which comes to represent them as artists:
Here is Justin Timberlake’s ‘Mirrors’, the obvious theme of the music video being self-reflection and the artist’s relationship with his wife.
The mirror motif is used constructively in this video to give a fragmented effect and portray a sense of longing and desire. The use of many mirrors could further represent the artist’s split personality or clashing thoughts. We have recreated this effect by using similar mirror shots to represent our performer’s inner conflict, also linking to Andrew Goodwin's notion of looking.
This close up shot of a woman crying uses the rule of thirds – the woman is shown on the right third in the foreground, leading the audience’s eyes immediately towards her. This provokes empathy within the audience, who therefore assimilate themselves with the performer so to create a greater emotional impact. Our corner shot is similar, and we hope to achieve the same effect as this director.
I also like the use of low-key lighting and a monochrome colour palette in the shots below, as both accentuate shadows and construct a mysterious atmosphere. We have used a black and white filter on our shots as we feel it looks more sophisticated and like Timberlake's video, emphasizes a dismal mood.
The superimposition in the following shot is effective, as it represents the artist’s hankering for his lover, his aspirations or possibly his dreams. This is something we could try, in order to represent our theme of escapism.
Here is the full music video, which we paid close attention to in terms of mise-en-scene and symbolism:
PVRIS’ 'St Patrick' video employs many effective editing techniques which we would like to emulate in our own video.
The opening shot is edited to the beat using a layered effect, where the opacity of one shot is reduced to superimpose the following shot. This creates a seamless transition, allowing the shots to follow the rhythm of the song. This is something we would like to achieve, having already filmed some inky water shots to layer onto our current footage.
The use of reverse editing is particularly effective in this shot, as it creates the illusion of a lack of chronology and distorts the audience’s perspective. This is an interesting technique which we could apply to our own video, to engage with our audience and make our shots more visually exciting.
The circular border is also used in this video, emphasizing Dyer’s notion of star image. We have edited our footage into a static circle; however we could create a moving border, to introduce the different settings in our video as seen below.
The video employs a predominantly dark colour palette, which creates a sense of mystery, linking to the obscure lyrics. The dull tones create an elegant vintage style, common to the indie genre. Although our colour palette is monochrome, the contrast between costume and setting could help emphasize the presence of our performer within the frame.
The hand-mirror prop is a prominent feature of the video, perhaps symbolic of the diversion of the performers attention towards the person who the song was written for as this complies with the lyric ‘You give me something to think about that's not the shit in my head’. The mirror prop complies with Goodwin’s ‘notion of looking’ – a key aspect of successful music videos. We have therefore tried to use mirror props in a similar way, in our own music video.
Here is the full music video, in which the choppy editing and seamless transitions can be fully appreciated:
Today we went back to the BFI for a conference about our media exam. Although the focus was not on producing our music videos, we learned about useful examples of media products which represent youth - we were also introduced to a few theorists, which can be applied across the course.
Here is a quick vlog which me and Hannah did on our return train journey:
Here is a quick group vlog, discussing our recent change in idea. We explain why we have chosen to omit the footage of Tayla in the forest, and the Little Red Riding Hood theme in our music video. We also give a quick summary of what we have left to do in terms of filming and editing.
Today we filmed in our third location again. We have made use of another mirror, emphasizing the notion of looking throughout our video. Here are some more stills from filming:
In the shot below, we have used minimal lighting to cast shadows over Tayla, in accordance with the lyric 'dancing in the shadows'. We have now lip synced to the whole song in each location and we therefore have a wide range of shots to incorporate in our video.
Here are the opening credits of the first 3 seasons of American Horror Story, a supernatural thriller/horror television series. I really love the use of fast-paced editing and the jittery quick cuts. I also like the use of lowkey lighting and occasional flashes, which startle the audience causing disorientation. Most disturbing shots have a short duration, which creates an enigma. This is something we could think about when editing our music video, as we plan to edit to the beat - the tempo of our song picks up in the instrumental parts which could be filled using a choppy montage of shots, like the opening credits above.
