To practice for our full-length music video for next year, we have to create a 1 minute music video. For our project, we've chosen to do a song called Magazine by Sløtface. We're going to do a performance piece, with a few conceptual shots that follow the genre of similar pop/punk music videos. We chose to do this song because it's energetic, and we could do practically anything for the music video. Furthermore, the band aren't particularly well-known, therefore our audience won't already associate a music video with this song.
To study what makes music videos so good, we were asked to recreate one. We chose to do Mika's 'Grace Kelly' because of how easy the video was to recreate. Here's our recreation and the original:
To help us gain an understanding of how many shots and different scenes can be required to make a music video, we were tasked with creating a storyboard for an extract of Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication. Here is the original music video and my storyboard:
For our music video, we have to create a production studio. Here's an idea for the logo and title of our production studio:
The sketchy look to our logo gives off the indie vibe we wanted to achieve, whereas the title 'Engineered' implies that we are still perfectionists who make great music videos.
For our coursework this year, we have to create a band, a website, and a CD cover. To get a headstart on my work, we've created some designs which can be used on our website. We're planning to get these designs printed onto actual shirts, in order to have a 'band photoshoot'.
Also, we've decided to name the band 'Toxic City', as the name gives off a pop punk vibe, which is the genre of music we decided our band specialises in.
For this task, we were asked to do a textual analysis of five recommended music videos. Here are the five I was asked to comment on:
Panic! At the Disco - Emperor's New Clothes
This music video is clearly a narrative/conceptual video. What I like about it is the drastic lighting, that often flickers a bright white, and the carefully constructed mise-en-scene. Furthermore, I like how the video seems to be filmed in as little camera shots as possible, with smoothly edited transitions but jerky movements from the obviously central lead singer. Overall, it gives the entire video a very creepy vibe.
Liam Gallagher - Wall of Glass
This music video is definitely a conceptual video, and what I like about it is the constantly changing lighting colours, that gives an eerie and indie feel to the whole video. Also, I like the way the camera plays with angles and movements to make certain scenes seem unaffected by gravity. Furthermore, the editing techniques in this video are highly professional, which increases the strangeness, just like the choice to play with mirrors does.
Green Day - Basket Case
This music video was famously shot in black and white, and each individual shot was recoloured, to give the entire piece a strange, neon look. I like the level of detail that went into the mise-en-scene of this conceptual/performance video. Furthermore, I like how in certain scenes the lighting is harsh, and there's a stark contrast between the rest of the image and the lighting.
Paramore - Hard Times
Honestly, I love this entire video. The mise-en-scene is carefully constructed to give this conceptual/performance video a weird, edgy and 80s vibe. I like the way the video is editing to give the overall feel of an 80s kids instructional video, the close-ups of the instruments, and the pastel colour scheme. The music video clearly has a lot of close-ups of the lead singer too, while keeping the band in a lot of the other shots. Furthermore, the camera shots also seem to be very smooth pans or zooms, which fits the 80s feel perfectly.
Circa Waves - Fire That Burns
The most spectacular things about this music video are the beautiful lighting, strong narrative, and the carefully picked colours to emphasise the scene. The bright reds and lush greens really leave an impressionable impact on the viewer. Furthermore, this video fits all the tropes of a cheesy murder mystery, with the frequent quick zooms and strong lighting cues when people are about to die.
Synaesthesia is a condition where, upon hearing music, a person is said to experience emotions in their other senses. For example, some people are said to see colours, or even taste the music. In artists, it is quite a common trait, with notable artists such as Billy Joel, Pharrell Williams and Patrick Stump all openly speaking about their condition, and even Vincent van Gogh was documented as associating piano keys with colours. For our task, we listened to George Michael's 'A Different Corner', and were asked to plan a music video for it based on how the music felt. Here are my results:
As you can see, I felt that the music was full of green and blue colours, and should be represented with natural imagery, lip-synching and a lot of camera fades. Upon reflection, I think that maybe I may have synaesthesia.
