Updated Creative Ideas

Following research into existing music videos and analysis of the lyrics here is an update of my ideas for the video; -

• ·      We had discussed using powder paint to match the visuals to the lyrics “paint you with the colours of everything I ever was”. After my individual research into existing music videos, P!nk’s video, Try, effectively used powder paint so I discussed this idea further with my group and we have decided to pour a bucket of powder paint over someone’s head for the video and then over-crank it as we feel that this will work very well. We could also break up this shot using editing by putting other shots of the star lip-synching then back to the paint shot.
• ·      Another idea that came from an existing video, One Direction’s Little Things, was the dollying shot type. At first we thought this would be nearly impossible as we don’t have the equipment to do it, but after I researched behind the scenes of the video, one idea I had was to create a makeshift dollying device. If we could find a completely hard flat surface, we could use a simple shopping trolley to film in and push someone around in it. Although it is possible for us to do, I don’t know whether or not this shot type will work for our genre so we may try it but I cant see it actually being used in the final product.
• ·      As for costume, we had already discussed the simple idea of Morgan wearing a little black dress for the video. However, after thinking more deeply into this, some ideas that have emerged from discussion are the use of several black dresses that we could buy cheap from a charity shop to burn or rip in the video. If we could get a shot of Morgan burning a little black dress in our music video, it could express the anger portrayed through some of the lyrics. Also, we could film Morgan wearing a worn, ripped, tattered old black dress in some shots where it fits particular lyrics similar to the dress worn in P!nk’s video.
•             I looked at some setting ideas and lighting techniques in Bastille’s video for Pompeii. I got some good ideas from this video such as the idea of car lights in the dark directly onto the star. This looks very effective and can easily be done. I’d also thought of using a shot similar to that seen in Birdy’s video for Skinny Love, we could film a shot of Morgan standing in front of a window with the light coming from behind her so that it gives a silhouette effect.

GROUP POST - Lyric analysis - Little Black Dress

Similar product research 8 - Shot types and lighting techniques

Birdy – Skinny Love

This shot of her silhouette in front of a bright window would work well with our video as it may show her having no identity to begin with as she finds herself. It is easily done too, all we need is a window.

I like the way this shot fades in and I think we could do it.

These would be the kind of extreme close-up shots we would use, dark, and the artist hardly looking into the camera as I feel it fits our song and mise en scene ideas better.

We could easily achieve a close-up pull focus shot like this one.

This shot fades out by the brightness gradually increasing until it’s white and then cuts. We could use this effect on final cut pro x.

This shot of her walking over broken glass is easily done and symbolises a lot of things however the target audience interprets it. According to David Morley, an audience theorist, the TA should receive this in the preferred reading response. This is the reading which the media producers (me) want the audience to receive.

I think this technique of repeating a shot from two different angles/ distances works really well especially when it cuts on the beat. It could symbolise lost time or time slowing down which again would work well with our lyrics and genre.

The song we have decided to use starts with two piano keys, so we were thinking of using a shot similar to this one.

Here there is a change in setting, a low shot of someone walking through a woodland area. As we live in a rural area there are many close-by places we could film which look like this.

They have used another out-of-focus shot and it has been over-cranked which we could easily do on final cut.

The final shots darken to black with is a much less harsh cut, we may use cuts like this.

Similar product research 7 - Costume, mise en scene, shot types

P!nk – Try

We could use this disorientated mirror shot and I feel like it will work very well.

The costume in this video is similar to the ripped black dress we were thinking of using in some of the shots where the lyrics sound particularly like she’s given up. I also like this shot of her crouched on the floor as it looks as though she’s fallen down but she is determined to get back up. A shot like this would fit our lyrics;

“A pretty good chance to dust myself off and dance”, “Now I'm fighting to find the ground again, to steady my feet, get up off my knees…”

This shot of her holding her arms out and singing with her worn/ torn looking dress would work perfectly with our artist, genre and song.

Morgan is a dancer so we could achieve shots similar to this.

When we annotated the lyrics we mentioned using powder paint to create a fog-like effect and to match the lyrics, after seeing it being used in this video I think we will definitely use it as it looks effective.

Similar product research 6 - Shot types and editing

One Direction – Little Things

The first shot is a long shot of the band walking into a studio. The entire video has a black and white filter on it, which I think may look quite effective in our video, as it would fit the lyrics and our initial setting ideas. However I feel like we would only put a few shots in black and white or only the shots in one particular setting as if we did the whole video in black and white it wouldn’t give us much opportunity to show off our skills in making the correct setting with the right colour schemes and we want to show our artist with red lipstick down her face which wouldn’t be as effective in black and white. Unless we only picked out the red colouring and made the rest black and white. (Colourisation)

On the behind the scenes video of this we can see the dollying device they used for filming around the studio. If we were to film on a hard floor where a shopping trolley for example would run smoothly, we could use this technique however we would have to practice with it to see if it works and to make sure it is steady.

All their costumes are casual and there are a lot of shots of them smiling and laughing which show the laid-back attitude of the song lyrics and their band image. Our initial costume ideas were to dress Morgan in a little black dress as that is the title of the song we’re using.

There are close ups of the instruments being played, we will not use this technique although it is a stereotypical aspect of music videos because our video is to show the feelings and emotions of the song and lyrics coming trough Morgan in the way she sings and the mise en scene.

There are a lot of extreme close ups of the artists singing in this video, we will definitely be using some extreme close ups to show her hair and makeup as this supports the idea that music videos were made for the fans to get close up to the artist.

I like the zoom shots to the artist as they are singing and I think this will look effective in our video.