UNIT 9: MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCTION
TASK 1 - RESEARCH
We got tasked individually to pick 3 songs we wanted to make music videos around and then narrow our choices down to one, here are my 3.
The Replacements - Bastards of Young: this could be an interesting video with a blend of narrative and concept. Interesting shots could be made about the disenfranchised youth from dingy little towns drinking in fields and scraping together money for cigarettes, feeling like they're going nowhere.
Suede - The Drowners: this video would again be a blend of concept and narrative, it could portray a relationship within which one person loses themselves and their identity to the other as well as the mundanity of modern life and the glamour in the gutter or impoverished English towns.
The Replacements - Waitress in the Sky: Again, this video would be a blend of concept and narrative, possibly with some performance, it would take place in the plane cabin and feature a scruffy looking man being generally obnoxious and rude to an air hostess. It could feature the band sat in the back seats, playing.
Waitress in the Sky is the song that we ended up choosing, I decided on not having any performance elements as I thought it would make the video too full.
There are many different types of music videos, two styles I heavily considered were a narrative video and a concept video.
Narrative videos are entirely story based, they don't always have to relate to the lyrics but very often do, they are more or less short films to accompany the song. Usually, a narrative video will compliment the songs lyrics to help emphasise the meaning of the song. Colour and lighting can be used as thematic tools in this style of video to further get the point across. The effect this has on the audience is that it makes them think about the point of the song and consider the story of the video which in turn will mean they are thinking about the song meaning the video has done its job as a piece of advertising while also eliciting some emotion in the audience.
Concept videos are videos that have no story and more often than not have no relevance to the lyrics themselves (the direct opposite of the narrative video). Sometimes a concept video will include a smaller narrative but the focus is more so on the performance rather than the story. These videos typically lack structure and are made memorable for the audience by their unique visuals and performances. This is good as it keeps the audience thinking about the song, much like a narrative video would, and means it has fulfilled its role as a piece of advertising.
TASK 2 - DESIGN
Our group came up with a different idea each to pitch to each other on songs of our choosing. Below are screenshots of my music video pitch.
Today we were tasked to make a short music video in order to practice as we have never done this before. Our group chose to do 'Hung Up' by Madonna, we decided to make it look like a low budget 80's video, heavily relying on green screen and cheesy tropes.
We decided as a group to use my idea for Waitress in the Sky by The Replacements after we all finished pitching. I liked Alex's idea but he didn't want to use his and asked us not to and Shayne's idea would require a level of special effects that we don't have access to. Mine seemed the simplest to do as it would be filmed entirely in college and didn't involve supernatural elements.
TASK 3 - PLANNING
Task 4 Production
Today we filmed all of our video, it was a bit of a struggle as the space was smaller than I remembered it being and a few extras didn't turn up. We decided not to use a microphone because all the necessary audio was in the song. We tried to follow the shot list as accurately as possible but some shots became impossible due to the space, necessary angling and the weather outside. I also ended up acting as camera operator because our appointed operator decided to sit on his phone and watch Dr Who videos the whole time despite repeated efforts to get him to contribute whatsoever to the shoot. I will opt not to work with deadweight in the future as I do not intend to be a babysitter on my sets. The actors were great at doing as they were told and that made things run much smoother, communicating direction with them was easy as pie.
I helped Shayne edit his video as I had no access to a hard drive (this will soon be rectified).
Alex's cut of the video above
TASK 5 - EVALUATION
What went wrong?:
I had to cut a lot of our planned shots because of the space we had, in future i need to double check the spaces we will be filming in and take photos rather than only doing one recce.
I had to be camera operator because of our 'camera operator' doing nothing.
What went well?
The actors were easy to direct and performed well
The project was done on time
The actors acted professionally on set
What Have I learned?
I prefer co-directing
I need to do more intensive recces
Get as much footage as possible, even if it's too much
What should I improve on?
Solo direction work
camera operating ability
wrangling crew members
Overall it was an okay experience but I want to not have to pick up the slack of somebody else so I can focus entirely on my own role as I feel this would allow me to produce better quality work because I'd have full focus and less stress. It was a good experience to film in the plane and I'm glad the DOP did his job. I also need to do more intensive recces.
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