Scouting Locations #3

Today I went to my 3rd location which is the forest. It was a great sunny day so there was a great atmosphere, something I'm hoping to capture when it comes to filming. 

As you step down the steps there is quite an impressive clearing which might make for a good extreme long shot, zooming out from the artist.

It is quite lush which I think will look great on camera.

 The photo above is my favourite are, where the majority of the filming will probably take place. The tree I think will be the perfect place for 2:47-2:57, where the artist will lie in the trees where I shall film a high shot from above. 

I'm very happy with this location and am looking forward to filming more here. I've put together a video of shots I filmed in the location which can be found here.

What makes a good music video?

I decided to post a question on Yahoo! Answers to gain more feedback from a wider audience. Here is my question...

Within minutes I got a few answers...

These answers confirm my previous research on polls and forums such as Yahoo, where most people believe that the music itself is the most important aspect. 2 of the 4 answers also mention sexuality which is an interesting topic which I will discuss here: 'The Doctor's answer being particularly relevant.
I'm not completely sure what the last answer is eluding too, but good quality is something I've been working hard to achieve. 
Using this forum has been very interesting and I may use it again to help me with further details in the future.

Casting

I have casted the female lead for my music video...

I think Kati will be a good protagonist as she is very engaging on camera as she was also my model for my music magazine last year. She is also quiet a good actress and I think fits well with the genre and the effect I'm trying to achieve as she is natural, fun and energetic. 

We are meeting up this weekend to arrange when we are both free for filming.
We shall also discuss costumes, which I will then post about. We may rehearse a few shots and I'll make sure she has a copy of the lyrics which she can practise so the lip-syncing looks professional. 

Equipment List

Here is the equipment I shall be using during the production of my music video...


1. Panasonic HD60 Video Camera

2. Sony a330 DSLR Camera

3. Tripod

4. Relevant costumes


5. Relevant props including:
- a rose
- paper boat
- match


6. Blanket for Artist to lie down on in the grass and forest locations.

New Ideas

After talking over my ideas so far in class, I have come up with a few new ideas that I'd like to integrate into my video.

As one of the lines is "lay your ships bare" and I'm setting a portion of the video on the beach I thought shooting in front of the fishing boats would be an excellent visual signifier for the audience. 

Also reoccurring motifs are a good way of making music videos successful so I am looking to include one in mine and thought a paper boat might fit in well. I could use it in most of my locations; the beach, the river, the forest. The visual image of the paper boat floating out to see is a strong image, something I have looked at here. Otherwise on the river rapids would also look good. 

Another great new idea is to have my artist throwing rose petals into the water. I think this a really strong visual code for romance, being thrown away - akin to the line "we could have had it all". However, I want it to be a positive action so will probably have the artist smiling as she does it as she is glad to have moved on from the relationship.


I also realised I need something a little more unique in order to stand out in the market, which is why I had an idea to shoot some scenes at night. I'm not sure which scenes would benefit from darkness but my initial thoughts were the beach scenes - especially with the match falling shot as it would really stand out in the night. The scene doesn't have to be entirely shot at night, in fact intercutting day and night might up the pace even more, but the darkness would give it more of an edge. 


Lastly, I'd like to look a bit further into the representation of my female protagonist and how female artists are portrayed in music videos, which I wil put in a seperate post. 

Experimenting: Shot 2:25-2:27 (Cutaways and Transitions)

Whilst scouting the beach location, I also filmed a few shots to experiment with a few crucial visuals, including the 2:25-2:27 shot that leads out of the interlude.
I also looked at transitions that could be used and a few other shots that could be used as cutaways... 

Scouting Locations #2

I stepped out on a gorgeous September day last week to scout out the Beach location for my video. 

Below is where the first 18 seconds will be filmed with the artist singing the first few lines of the song. 

Here I focused on the waves with the pebbles on the beach, which will make a nice cutaway shot.

The waves were looking really good, so I filmed some practice shots of the waves crashing. 

I then walked over to the fishing boat area which is a new idea I had as part of the video. I think having the artist walking between and sing amongst the boats will look good.

Then I went over the bridge to look at the cliff area. 

In the sun it looked really beautiful, but perhaps the sun isn't the right atmosphere for the video. The twilight and the darkness might be more edgy, but the start of the video may begin in brighter light, so as to contrast with the rest of the video. Then so as to highlight the parallels between the start and end of the song, I could revert back to brighter light, so as to visually signify that she has 'come through the darkness' and is now moving on.

The cliffs will be a great backdrop for 0:37-0:45.

And the above angle will be brilliant for 0:19-0:36 and 0:46-0:53, especially as it is usually quiet along this section of the beach so it will look even better.

One thing I realised as I walked onto the beach was that the tide was coming in, reminding me that I will definitely need to check the tide times before shooting, so as not to be caught out.

Critiquing Existing Products: Delilah

As the song I have chosen is a dance remix I have decided to look at the existing products already on the market to look at the conventions that I need to include and to gain some more inspiration.
The first thing I noticed whilst researching was that very few remixes have any videos. Browsing through UKDubstep and UKFDrumandBase's YouTube channels it is clear that only about 5% of the videos have any moving images.
Now I can take this in two ways: 1. There isn't a lot of inspiration available, so it will be hard to make a video that fits in with the conventions 2. I have less restrictions and can think more creatively about what I'd like to do.
The practical reason for the lack of videos is that a lot of the artists aren’t signed to record labels and have less money, but even then there is a lot less money in the industry due to things like piracy. Also a lot of the music produced in ‘user generated’ - a symptom of our Web 2.0 culture where anyone can make and share music. There is also much less of a need for a video now, due to YouTube and other sites like, SoundCloud where anyone can create, produce and share their music for free and where most people now consume their music. 
The great thing about the genre of dance is that it is much more artistic and less literal than popular music and therefore the videos are often much more creative, thus a lot more exciting to make a video for.
Another convention that I have noticed from my research is that the videos are centered around the club culture, as this is the natural home for the music. This means that a huge amount of the videos are located in clubs or at the gigs of the DJs. They feature the DJ mixing on stage and the crowd jumping and dancing.

Taken from Laidback Luke vs Example's video for Natural Disaster

and Tiesto vs Diplo’s video for C’Mon

The reason for this is that they contain the target audience of 18-25 year olds that listen to this genre of music and go to this types of settings, meaning they relate to the locations. Unfortunately these settings aren’t available to me so I’ve had to think more creatively in order to still retain the dance element in my video. What stands out in these videos is that they still have the editing techniques I have been looking at and will have in my video. I will look at other genres to inspire me on how to make a music video, but will try and keep the lighting, colouring, costumes, editing and overall tone of the video conventional to the genre of dance.

Next, I'm going to look at a particular video and critique it. I have chosen Go by Delilah as it she is a female artist and it is of the dance genre. I am interested to look at how she is represented.

The video is set on some quiet city (London?) streets with the artist walking down them.

It opens with some out of focus shots of buildings with their lights on as it is night time, establishing the location. This builds up the atmosphere and connotes being alone and on edge.

 The camera work is mostly hand-held which makes it feel less polished and more edgy, something which is common in the genre.

And then as the artist sings the first few lines the camera holds on her face for a full 13 seconds - quite a long shot! It then cuts between a few different angles of the same scene of the artist walking down the street with a hood on, as she finishes the first verse.

This low angle makes the artist seem bigger and connotes power

Then in the pause between lines a few cutaways of the location are used...

...before focusing back on the artist as she sings again, this time from further away.

Then as the music builds an extreme close-up is used of the artists face, meaning that the audience can have a creater connection with her and empathises with her emotions (which they can see more clearly in CU) as she leads into the first chorus.

The video so far is much more slowly paced than videos I have looked at previously, and many of the shots use slow motion to add to this effect. It makes the dark city streets look almost dream-like, which fits well with the song.

 Then we get a glimpse of a man walking down a street - he is part of the narrative for the video and is intercut with the artist.

It cuts to an alleyway, which we see the man entering...

 ...and then to a CU using a handheld camera, as the man looks behind him. This immediately connotes paranoia, so begin to feel worried about him. Maybe the quiet streets aren't so friendly after all.

 A classic shot used in Thrillers is seeing the protagonist from behind, which gives a strong feeling that someone is behind them, watching them or about to catch up with them.

Then it cuts back to the artist as she interacts with the location with great lighting. The lighting used in the video is mostly related to city street lighting from buildings and lamp-posts to give it a more realistic feel. They use the shadows well making for a tense atmosphere heightening the paranoia of the man.

 We see people like the two men below that you would find in the city. These men are young, but as they are out at night dressed in a lot of black and have facial expressions that aren't very friendly they're meant to build up the picture of what it feels like to be on those streets. I also like how the beat of the music here fits the editing really nicely as it jump cuts as it pans across the men's faces...

Now when we cut back to the artist there is red lighting. This could connote danger to the audience, and with the use of lens flares disorients the audience slightly.

The camera work is shaky here as the artists continues walking, except...

... in this shot when she is standing down a back alley. The concrete and shadows is definitly meant to relate to the audiences living in cities who may go to clubs, as this type of music would be played in those settings. 

Canted angles are used here as well, which suggests instability and gives it a more raw feel and, again, adds to the dream like atmosphere.

The camera moves closer in on the man as we cut back to his narrative, signalling that the 'threat' has become more imminent. He walks in slow motion so every action is exaggerated making it look a little eery.

A dog then comes into shot out of the shadows, which is quite intimidating. 

Then the camera movement becomes more interesting. As the artist is standing in the alley she has her hands out to her sides touching the walls. The camera moves around, twisting up, down and around making the audience feel a little disorientated and uncomfortable. This could be connoting how it feels to walk down the city streets at night if they all look the same.

The dog then appears again this time with a brighter light on him. He is looking out away from the camera as if ready to bark or attack if anyone comes near. The spikes on his collar adds to this effect.

We then get a CU of the mans face again this time as he looks over his shoulder, another classic paranoia shot. His face is light up but the background is in shadows and his face is worried so you can empathise with how he feels.

In the pause between lyrics we get a cutaway of a lamp-post with lens flares adding to the artistic feel of the video and retaining the location of the city at night.

We see the artist again as she continues to sing this time in a more lit up area, but still with shaky camera moves until she stops to focus on the end of the line...

...which then cuts to her back in the alley as she shows some more emotion.

It then cuts to an extreme close up of the artist playing with her hair - an angle we haven't seen since the beginning. It is also an opportunity to show off her jewellery - similar to what the target audience would wear or want to emulate.

The pacing is a little faster now as it builds to the last chorus. I like this shot above as it shows the artist clearly in the light with shadowy surroundings but with the silhouetted outline (perhaps on a poster?) or a woman which could reflect how the artist feels - being in the shadows. And also shows how everything looks different under the cover of darkness and that even an ordinary poster can seem more sinister.

These next few images show the different angles, lighting and locations the artist is in for the next few lines of the song. So far the artist has been pretty sombre and intense but she begins to smile now as the message of the song may be more positive. 

The dog returns, this time walking down the streets on its own - even more scary as there is no human to control it. This could connote how there are 'animals' on the streets that could harm you every day.

We see the man again, looking over his shoulder. As this follows the shot of the dog this could suggest that he is scared of/running away from the dog.

There is another shot of a street light. It is obvious that this video is very much focused around lighting and it is used in good effect to great a great atmosphere around the song.

We see the artist walking again with the hood pulled over her face. The artist has worn the same costume throughout the video of a dark hoodie pulled up onto her head. This usually signifies that you don't want to be seen or can even imply status and power. Correlating with the unusual sight of a deserted city street this could mean that she either shouldn't be there alone or heightens that feeling of being frightened and alone that the audience can sympathise with.

This next part of the song focuses on editing to the beat, an extremely common convention of contemporary music videos. This shot starts off at her side and jump cuts up to her profile and then to her facing the camera. It then cuts to an extreme CU of the artists lips...

The camera is steady as she lip-syncs a few of the lyrics and then cuts to a more fast paced, shaky camera work with the red lighting on the artists face once again...

The camera tracks her as she does different arm gestures including moving her hand to the top of her head. There are lens flares again, making the image more pleasant and artistic to look at as well as more professional. The camera goes out of focus and pans down to her hand at her side. 

We see the dog again and what appears to be the same shot of the man looking over his shoulder - repeating the same shots creating a visual motif for the video. 

Then the editing gets a lot more exciting as the beat of the song very suddenly quickens, so the editing becomes extremely fast as we see flashes of the artist in the various poses and locations of the video so far...

...ending with the shot above.
The editing remains reasonably fast as the song climaxes and the artist becomes a lot more animated in her lip syncing.

The camera movement, however, remains canted and disorientating as she sings in the alley.

We see the dog, silhouetted in a light up doorway, this time running (albeit in slow motion) so a lot more intense. 

This is then paralleled with the artist walking in slow motion past a light up doorway also. The dog is seen again, now just walking in slow motion and the man is seen, his face in shadows...

However this time as he turns around his facial expression changes...

 And then we see him, for the first time in the video, running.

 He looks over his shoulder once again, and then quick as a flash...

 ... he seems to run into a road...

...and the bus apparently runs him over.

 This is an odd ending to the narrative, and I'm not sure what the audience is meant to take away from it. The literal message is that if you get paranoid over dogs following you then you'll get run over by a bus. Or the more symbolic message could be that there is no reason to be scared of the city at night?

But as the camera cuts to the artist who appears to have witnessed what just happened and is almost smiling and then cuts to the final shot of the video with the artist holding the lead of the dog walking away into the night in slow motion in the abandoned streets of the city, the entire message of the video so far can begin to be questioned. The odd tension and paranoia that the man got from the dog may not have been unjustified and could be signifying that the artist herself was behind it. Or the last shot could be the artist trying to steer the dog away so it doesn't do anymore harm. I'm not completely sure. What I am sure about is that the video leaves you thinking and is dark and edgy.

As the shot fades to black a police car can be made out, turning a corner heading towards, I suppose, the scene of the 'accident'. 

After looking at Delilah's video it has reminded me that a lot of dance (and the surrounding genres) videos are set in urban locations. From 3:47 to 4:06 I am featuring urban locations in order to fit in with this convention. It is hard to set the entire video there as I live in the countryside, but I know it is important to get an urban element into the video as dance music connotes cities and the underground.

Also deconstructing this video has made me think that setting the video at night might give it an edgier feel. It will also give it a more unique feel as well as fitting better with the conventions of dance music videos, seeing as I can't have many urban locations due to the practical issues discussed above. I will need to think now about a shooting schedule to fit around this new night time idea as well as organising when my actress can be free to film.