Production Diary One - 20/9/2017

The past couple of weeks has consisted of me conducting a lot of research into existing music videos. The ones that I chose were particularly effective due to the way they conveyed storylines through subtle mise-en-scene, camera and editing techniques. Also, each one had a clear 'gimmick', whether that be concept based like GOTYE's Somebody That I Used To Know (with the colouration of the walls and the characters), or whether they tackled key emotional or social issues like Logic's 1800.

What I took from this research was that in order to be successful, especially in the indie rock genre with narrative as a key focus, you need to have a narrative that is empowering and can be applied to modern day society. I particularly like the ideas of social isolation shown in Logic's 1800 and Kodaline's All I Want, but currently am leaning more towards the homosexual aspect as it can portray a clear message to a somewhat jaded social audience and promote change for them.

I think that colour grading is a really key part of making our video look professional, especially when considering the connotations of that colour. The example I will use here is Jamie Lawson's Wasn't Expecting That, which uses high and low key colour grading (and lighting) to reflect the mood of the song. That music video also used letterboxing, which is something we definetley want to use to make our music video more cinematic.

The performance aspects in the 1975's Girls is something we want to use in our work, blending performance and narrative. The idea we are taking from this video is the band aesthetic; how they dress and how they perform. If we can replicate this in our work seamlessly alongside the narrative, I think our video will be successful.

Finally we would like to incorporate an idea of visual echo, where a shot or shots are repeated throughout the music video to allude to something later on. Coasts' Oceans did this perfectly, the imagery of water and drowning was a key aspect throughout the video - revealing to us in the end that the female character had committed suicide by drowning herself. Visual echo acts as a narrative hook for the audience which will keep them invested in the story.