Post 8: My music video

When it came to planning out my own music video I decided to look at a wide variety of music videos for inspiration on what themes or effects to use for my own video.

A slow-motion, grainy section of the "how do you sleep" video

The young/old transition in the Believer video

• I looked at the "How Do You Sleep" video by Sam Smith, the main parts of it that stood out to me were the occasional use of slow-motion shots as well as the occasional shift from professional camerawork to square, grainy, retro footage
• The Shape of You video gave me a good insight into a video that shows 2 people getting closer, we see character development that one would not typically expect in such a short time frame.
• I looked at the Believer video for Imagine Dragons and was especially engaged by the use of flashbacks in the video, something that makes sense for a music video as they need not be in chronological order. The use of a younger version of the characters was also an especially unique addition, a very interesting way to show a time change.
• I liked the Ed Sheeran - Beautiful People video because of it's atypical story about feeling out of place, one that many people can relate to; this as well as the age and costume difference between the main characters and the other characters made the video humorous and memorable. 
• The 5SOS - Teeth video caught my attention with its artistic use of lighting, different shots having different colours, and a lot of the shot being low lit and hard to see.
• The Dermot Kennedy - Outnumbered video created meaning in the video with shots where the camera simply zoomed in on one object and it's various scenic shots; giving real weight to every scene by slowing the video down to let the viewer really focus on it.

The effective zooms seen in the Dermot Kennedy - Outnumbered video

• I liked the cool, group of friends vs the world idea I saw in the Ariana Grande - 7 Rings video, where we see them all just having fun with a very carefree attitude.
• The low quality, cheesy effects seen in the Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber - I Don't Care video was a good way to give it a really personal, homemade touch; the video feels charming and grounded despite being made by 2 of the biggest artists in the world.
• The juxtaposing imagery of the Taylor Swift - You Need to Calm Down video such as cute things being lit on fire, made the video especially memorable. 

The love song lyrics heavily juxtapose with the child truck heist seen in the video

I found the Carlie Hanson - Back in My Arms video interesting to watch as it presented a story that was completely oppositional to the song itself, a plot that wasn't always clear and got revealed gradually as the video went on. I also liked the prominence of handheld camera use gave the video a much more personal feel. Though I didn't include this narrative style I thought it served as a great example of videos that have more abstract, open stories but showed me how one must have an especially good, almost movie-like story to tell if they are to do one of these kinds of stories.

In the Dua Lipa - New Rules video, we see a story where the artist is the main character and she goes through a sequence where she learns to stay away from her ex-boyfriend, a direct translation of the song's lyrics. We then see her transition from being told these lyrics to telling them to someone else, this progression was very interesting to me and something I wanted to show in my video; it's like we're seeing the inspiration for the lyrics. This narrative was what I based my own video idea on, as I liked the story of a character going from being taught to being the teacher.

Dua Lipa being advised by the other characters

Dua lipa advising another character

All of these music videos helped my actual music video, at a macro level allowing me to get a feel for the genre and conventions of pop music videos; ie the use of disjuncture and non-linear storytelling and a few micro elements from specific videos I wanted to use for my own narrative.

When first coming up with an idea, I had to look at the songs lyrics and think of ways to interpret them, I went through a few ideas; one of a video showing various different people who feel alone/outcasted but eventually their real interests are revealed to us. 

I then thought about a story where we follow a character through their whole journey where we see them progress from an introverted quiet person to performing their passion on a big stage

In the end though, I went with a different narrative that incorporated some of these ideas, a story of a boy being inspired to express himself by a busker he sees and then when his friends shut down his passion, he expresses himself anyway, filming a video and putting it up. This inspires his friends to do the same, with the story going full circle and showing how all it takes is one person to inspire others. This also acts as a sort of origin story as we see the boy go from a more normal look whilst being more reserved and quiet, to his final star persona look.

From this, I decided to start planning for the video. I first wrote down a number of ideas I had for the video. Once I had a basic plan, I decided to get various stock images from the web to help me visualize each shot and create a digital shootboard for my video.

Page 1 of my digital shortboard, this part of the idea stayed quite similar. In the final product however, my character doesn't start as much of an outcast as seen here. He also sees the busker before seeing his friends

Page 2 of my digital shortboard, though similar to the final idea; I removed the idea of getting rid of the phone, as well as the idea that once he went back to his friends they were still against him.

Page 3 of my digital shortboard, I decided to not just have 1 friend follow the protagonist and thought it would be better if the whole group was inspired. 

My initial, digital shootboard for my music video

I then presented my idea and was advised to use a few more locations from within London. This made me decide what interesting London locations I wanted to film at so I made a mood board of various interesting places in central London. After considering which one would look the most interesting as well as which would be the most realistic to do, I decided on filming at the Southbank skatepark as well as a shot of a busker in the hustle and bustle of Covent Garden market.

Using the feedback and a few ideas I had, I created a storyboard using post-it notes and drawings. Different colour post-it notes allowed me to see the variety of shot types from a macro glance. 

My final storyboard for my video

From this storyboard, I created my actual shootboards for the shoot day, containing details on who I wanted in each shot, what time I would be filming and what props I needed. I made separate props and location lists beforehand and then went on to find actors. I decided on my actors after deciding on my story, I knew I wanted a diverse cast and so I had 2 males and 2 females from different races, widening the video's appeal.

Part of my location list, allowing me to lay out where I wanted to film beforehand

My props list, some of which I replaced in the final video

One of my shootboards, something I used to plan out each day's filming

Overall, by planning all of these aspects it made the initial coming up with ideas easier as well as making sure the filming day went as smoothly as possible. Though not everything went to plan it was good to have a plan beforehand which I could adapt around if needed.