Narrative in Music Video

I recognize the importance of Narrative and aim to keep referencing back to this at later stages in production. Without narrative the story does not have meaning within the music video, which therefore removes value. Storyboards are a great tool also, below:

It is very important to form the Narrative within the Music Video, so me and my group have decided to follow the rules set from this slideshare to help us stick to a logical plana and pattern. 


 

Lyrical Analysis

So now i've chosen the song, I need to get sraight in and check out the lyrics so that during later stages of my music video production I can incorporate them. Within this genre, the linking of lyrics within the story is not the highest importance, however the syncing of them is. So together in our group we have decided initially it is very important that our actor/singer for our shoot knows the lyrics.(See "The Shoot")

"It's Monday morning
And I would kill for a chance to drive
Get so far away from here with you my dear
That I'll never leave your side
Nobody knows the troubles I've seen
In a van, on a soapbox for the world to see

Miles away, and I wish this didn't mean so much to me
To be a monument for the rest of them
Miles away, and I wish this didn't mean so much to me
To be a monument for the rest of them

We're getting older
I've started to fear for my life
is this the way that it should be?
this whole thing's riding on me
it's been a long road so far
with nowhere to turn
There's no looking back from here
no more dwelling on my fears

Miles away, and I wish this didn't mean so much to me
To be a monument for the rest of them
Miles away, and I wish this didn't mean so much to me
To be a monument for the rest of them

Twenty bucks says you'll remember me
When you see me on your TV screen
It may be the first time
But it won't be the last time
[x3]

And I'll scream
so loud that everyone in this place
Will hear every word I say
'cause this is my time, this is my time to shine
let nothing stand in our way
[x2]

Twenty bucks says you'll remember me
When you see me on your TV screen
It may be the first time
But it won't be the last time"

Song Selection

A very important decision for this course, is the choice of song. From past projects, ambitous and energetic music videos seemed very popular on the course, but the real importance seemed to lie in the understanding of the particullar genre's conventions. Different genres have different conventions and can limit the way in which you decide to produce music video entirely.


Below is a small list of popular genres and songs taken from the OCR's chief examiner's statement on last years coursework:


Pop - Katy Perry - Part of Me

The pop genre is very popular in terms of projects, my quantative research supports this, showing it as a very high percentage in popularity.

Music videos within this genre include lots of bright bold colours, clearly song and artist dependant, but Katy Perry represents this genre quite typically with sex appeal being clear from her advertisement campaign and music videos themselves. Even when the song is not relative to sex/love (which most songs within this genre are) she is shown as arguably as a sex object. Lots of effects and room for expansion appear when considering a Pop music video, and the choice is appealing for me personally. I think the focus of a solo artist would however limit certain choices in the production of our music video.

Rock - Foo Figthers - These Days

The rock genre is a much more diverse genre than pop and the example of Foo Figthers here is a good one. The majority of rock music videos (once more song and artist reliant) showcase the band and focus around action shots of the band and provide focus on all members, often more focus on the lead singer with sound syncing.

The song itself is to me and my colleauges taste, and the variety of paths we could take in terms of selecting a particullar song with reference to an interesting story to portray, much more so than pop. I think personally, it is of high importance to make sure the song reflects in the music videos telling of the story, but the band shots are completely seperate. This structure, diving the video into two logical easily understandable sections, leaves more focus on the editing, film taking and general quality of the video itself, which would be very good for my project.

Punk - The Casualties - For the Punx

My favourite out of the previously discussed genres is punk. Punk is generally a much more fast and upbeat form of music, reliant on dominant guitar and bass play, opposed to vocals and other forms. In terms of punk music videos themselves, action, lighting and band shots are very important, with less reference to story telling. On the other hand, many recent bands labelled as punk include less focus on intrumental play, and use more vocals, changing the way the genre is portrayed, and love benig shown in many storys in their music videos.





The true spirit of punk music, showcased by The Casualties, provides elements of rock and fast paced music raising the tempo for the audience and evoking different emotions than the previous genres. It is important for a music video for this genre to help these emotions be shown. So lighting and often the look of the characters involved and the band members is very important, much like the setting. Much more than other genres in my opinion.

Monument - A Day To Remember

After exploring punk a bit more the metalcore genre was a clear winner, enabling the elements of rock and punk with a clear vision for our prioject, fitting with our limited resources. The lighting for the band shots would work well with this song and the location (location link.) A Day To Remember are a fusion of heavy metal and hardcore punk, but many metalcore bands distinguish themselves from other punk metal fusions by its emphasis on breakdowns. Most vocals are screamed/growled. Depending on the band it can be high or low, or can have a mix of clean/growl vocals. The bands generally feature two guitarists who often play fast riffs with dual leads.The drummer usually performs using double-kick or double-bass drums. The metalcore genre is very broad. There can be many mixes with it, such as melodic metalcore (Anterior, ATR, Zao).

Storyline

Before jumping right into the filming of the video, another aspect to the planning of my music video is the storyline. I have been looking around for some solid theories on what you should aim to achieve in a music video story line. Tzvetan Todorov's theory of narratives appealed to me because it provides us with a very clear structure of what we need to do with the story. In Todorov's theory the protagonist within the music video should be seen to be affected by only five narrative changes.
The way we plan to approach our video is to have a structured idea of what shots, location and images protrayed will stands for each stage of the narrative change, but leave room for adapting and changing when filming on the set days. By this I mean we have decided upon set scenraios that occur within the storyline to represent certain narrative shifts, but the exact shot/acting may not work with other aspects of the film, so I will be constantly checking that the overall theme and look of the music video fits, and not get carried away with the storyline, although clearly the band shots and the storyline shots will display different images altogether.

The stages are listed below:

Stage 1 – A state of equilibrium is defined.

Stage 2 – Disruption to the equilibrium by some action or crisis.

Stage 3 – The character(s) recognition that there has been a disruption, setting goals to resolve the problem.

Stage 4 – The characters attempt to repair the disruption, obstacles need to be overcome to restore order.

Stage 5 – Reinstatement to the equilibrium. Situation is resolved, conclusion is announced.

Digipak Analysis (Preliminary)

A Day To Remember - What Seperates Me From You

Digipack Analysis

What seperates me from you, is ADTR (A Day To Remember)'s fourth metalcore album, targeted at heavy metal fans. In terms of first impressions on this particullar digipack, I notice  that a similiar coloue scheme is used throughout all sides of the pack, the cartoon/comic style has been adopted and the images clearly tell a story, representative of the album's title, "What Seperate's Me From You" The band's name is titled across the top middle of the cover, not distracting the attention from the image itself, whilst at the same time making the necessary information clear to the eye (something I think is very important and many bands often do not do, as they try to make eye catching images instead.

Personally the structure of the digipack is very clever, showing four different sections of the 'comic' which explains the album title and what the album is about, it creates a style for the cover whilst fitting with ADTR's previous album designs and genre, with blood and violent images depicted additionally.

Lighting within the cartoonized images, is very good, making certain images stand out for instances the suited man centred on the cover and the man's head on the back cover, whilst letting the background blend, but show noticeable characteristics when looked at.  This works well with the rounded text on the cover, lack of text elsewhere lets the images take the forefront of the cover, telling the story of the album throughout the entire digipack.

For me the way the entire digipack has been structured cohedes extremely well with the images, and clearly has been planned in such a manner. Thus it fulfills everything a digipack is intended to accomplish whilst portraying the musics genre vaguely.

Things to keep in mind!

Before actually generating any set ideas for my groups music video I decided to search around for a list of aspects that are important to consider when planning. From Music Video Theory's blog I have taken an evaluative questionare and analyzed what questions apply to a project of my degree and the stage I am currently at, and just to get a general idea on the response of a real music video producer's opinion about music videos.

Questionnare

"Q. What inspired you for your idea on the video?

A casual stroll through a lunatic asylum, no no actually, the very simple idea of making out with your hand.

This then manifested into a surreal narrative about a colony of girls, a little Lord of the Flies but from a female stand point with a good dose of Dionysiac energy.

Q. How were you approached for the job?

Through a friend who was friends of a friend of the band.

Q. What was the budget?

It was pretty small. I had to add a few hundred dollars to help get lift off.

Q. What were the limitations you faced with the production?

Pretty much time and budget covers most of the limitations.

Restrictions with locations. Getting that amount of cast together and clothing for budget.

Going for a high production look for the budget.

Q. Who were your key collaborators?

D.O.P: Katie Milwright

LOCATION SCOUT: Remmi Aloni

ART DIRECTOR: Jackson Dickie

WARDROBE: GIRLS SHOOT Stacey O'Connor/ Tom Howard

WARDROBE: Mia Veur ( Band Shoot)

MAKEUP: Samantha Coles & about 12 - 15 other MAKEUP people. It was like Willy Wonka's makeup factory.

Q. Have you worked with them before?

D.O.P . Locations scout and Makeup yes, the other guys were new relationships and super great to work.

Q. What was the process you took in producing the video?

Just accepting the chaos of the process, dealing with dead ends, when things don't work out how you plan.

Being a fast problem solver.

Q. What was the turnaround?

We actually went over, post was meant to be finished 7 days after the shoot, but it took around 3 weeks to finish, which the label and management graciously gave us. We shot an epic amount of footage.

Q. Why did post run over time?

Due to the amount of footage we shot, editing was quite arduous. I had over 16 hours worth of footage!

I had a whole entire band video also, so there were a lot of choices.

Q. What did you shoot on? What lenses did you use?

Alexa & Ultra primes => Girls shoot

7D & Canon lenses => Band Shoot

Q. Where did you shoot it?

Brighton, Melbourne.

Q. Was the house a private residence or was it a display home?

Private residence, which luckily was only partially occupied, so there was hardly any furniture to clear.

Sadly they're going to renovate that house.

Q. How long did the house shoot take?

The house we shot over a day and a half.

Q. Did you cast this yourself?

I did indeed. It was a pretty epic undertaking; I met with nearly everyone of the girls before the video. Over 50 girls.

Q. 50 girls is a huge cast, how did you manage to find so many?

Through various means, word of mouth, casting sites, a call out through online magazines, casting agents, acting/ dance schools.

Q. Was it an easy job convincing the cast on their actions and motivation?

All actions came from a place of feeling, so when speaking with the girls in these terms, we were able to find motivation.

It seemed fairly natural and organic; I made sure everyone new what we were making so if any one felt uncomfortable there was no pressure.

I felt it important that everyone genuinely wanted to be there.

Q. Did you use to practice kissing on your hand?

Yeah, definitely.

Q. Do you feel that the client understands the production process? How involved were the band throughout the process?

The band and I spoke initially via email about details of the treatment, they were super good throughout both the shoots.

They were on tour during the girls shoot, and some of their connections were in the girl’s video.

Q. If you had a chance to approach it again, what would you do differently?

I'd try having more sleep the night before the shoot. I think I had 1 hours sleep due to last minute thing and more wild life/ fauna."

It is clear that my A2 production will involve a much less substantial size and budget, but many of the above answers and topics raised apply to my upcoming music video and has helped keep these at the front of my mind when generating ideas.

Quantative Research

Once deciding upon, the type of project for my coursework I thought it would be a good idea to do some quantative research and get some opinions on general ideas about music videos.

The first bit of research I did was, to simply ask a few of my schoolmates to tell me the first word that pops into their head when asked about what they want to see in a music video:

"What's the first word that comes to your mind when I mention Music Video?"

I then wanted to just get a variety of different data about loads of things related to my project, so I made quite a few graphs from some questions I asked classmates and friends on topic related issues:

Favourite

Effect

Genre

I feel I benefited a lot from this research as it involved a large amount of people for a project of my scale, and gave me an accurate reading of what people are interested in and like to see, and the associated target audience for different types music videos.