Music video
When asked about already existing music videos and what makes them memorable the majority said that the video should have a strong and interesting narrative. However keeping it simplistic so it is easily understood by the audience and keeping the originality running through from the video. In our music video we intend to keep the simplicity and the originality elements and making them easy to understand by the audience due to multiple possible interpretations. The simplicity of our narrative will be using the simple ‘double life’ from everyday work to clocking of into a different world which is wacky and colourful. This is where the originality comes into the video because the multiple double life characters will meet at a tea party in the middle of a desolated area where nothing was before the characters turn up.
When components of the video are concerned every single person asked said they thought that a balanced mix of performance of narrative and performance make a good music video so in our music video we shall adhere to this finding. Making sure that the amount of band shots and narrative are split evenly, as close to 50-50 as possible. To show the splits in our video we shall use natural pauses or ends of chapters in the narrative to slot in the performance making it more organised and this will also make sure that the band performance isn’t always on the chorus of the song to show some originality and variation.
For the Indie genre the audience expect to see guitars, shirts buttoned up to the top with no tie and skinny jeans which is more related to the band’s costumes which is something we are definitely going to include in the performance elements of our video. They also expected to see vintage/quirkiness, a unique attitude and colourfulness which will be more inclusive in the narrative of the video and then incorporated into the Digipak and advert photography just because they link the song lyrics, band ethos and video narrative together nicely.
Whereas for the Alternative genre the audience expect to see more guitars, hear a heavier sound in the music and a lyrical connection to the video which are all aspects which we will use in our music video. We will get use the heavier sound in our video because of our song choice will have a strong indie/punk edge to it. The lyrical connection will be more of an explanation of our interpretation of the ‘double life’ theme in the lyrics themselves.
When asked about colour to be used in the video as an extra theme to tie everything together the theme of dark meets bright/light was the majority’s response. However the suggestion came through to use darker colours like dark blues and reds instead of using the obvious black. However no specific light colours shone through but vibrant ones like green and purple did therefore the colour scheme throughout could be kept to a similar pallet of blue’s, red’s and purple’s to keep consistency throughout the whole project.
For the narrative the audience said that it must explain what the song is about giving it a meaning of the lyrics allowing them to link directly. As a whole it should be emotive however the love theme is overdone and doesn’t link to the lyrics of our song therefore we will not be using that as our narrative. Love theme being overdone would stop us constructing a narrative that was unique, ambiguous and dramatic. Our Idea of the double life characters gives us the chance to make it very different and possibly a little bit odd, but in an arty-ambiguous way, creating a memorable narrative.
The expected style for a music video in general should have an overly used theme, which in our music video will be the evident symbol of double life with the changes that go on throughout the narrative. As well as the double life there will be the subtle changing of light as the sun is setting, along with the actual sunset. The main other consensus which came up was the work vintage. We have decided as a group that the vintage vibe goes with our song choice as the Futureheads are more alternative. We could create this by using extravagant, unique and overly individual costumes and props for the double life aspect, similar to that of the Smirnoff advert and gives the double life theme an extra dimension.
The shots that our audience expect to see in our music video are establishing, close up’s of the band, high angle and head shots. In our music video we will use establishing shots to introduce a new character in the narrative as it will allow us to highlight there boring life and what they do day in day out. We will use close ups of the band, especially the lead singer and the instruments, when their strong lyrics and strong instrumentals come up in the song. The close ups of the lead singer along with the instruments draws the audience into the music and makes them feel the power of what it is trying to get across through the lyrics. The high angle we will be using for the performance as one of the multiple angles we will use to show variety as well as using it for the Tea Party at the end of the narrative because it will show the change to crazy-manic.
The lighting for the performance should be unnatural using stage lights to add colour and professionally to the performance component of the video. Using colours will give the moody atmosphere which links to the alternative genre and heavier sound of the song giving it a stronger ambiguity, or use a dimly lit location to fit with the sunset of the narrative and lyrical connection. One of these ideas we will use for our performance as it gives us a direct link to the bands ethos and way they perform with relation to the alternative genre because it gives it an edge compared to basic stage lighting; Whereas for the narrative elements of the music video the lighting will be all natural light except for that of the indoor parts where the fluorescent light bulbs will take over.
