Today I had a meeting with the Creative Directer of the video. His name is Luke Gilchrist and he gave me lots of tips for my music video.
Luke Gilchrist - Creative Director
He advised I pick an obscure song which doesn't have an existing music video so people can't compare them.
We should stay away from narrative videos as they are supposed to add up and have a conclusion which creates problems when filming and editing in post-production.
The music video should be between 2.30 + 3.30 minutes long. It should keep the audience entertained for the whole length of the video.
A good website Luke mentioned was Radar Music.
This is the about section on the website-
Need a great music video? Or want to make more music videos for great artists? Radar can put you in touch with the directors, labels, managers or artists you need.
- We help labels, managers & artists get great videos on affordable budgets.- We help directors progress their careers via our Emerging Director Framework - see below.- And we never promote requests to make music videos for free.
I have decided to look at the track 'Lose Your Mind' by Kodaline as a possibility for my A2 music video. The band are an Irish rock band. There are currently four band members, Steve Garrigan,Vinny May, Jason Boland, Mark Prendergast. The band have had an MTV nomination, a BBC nomination and won an EBBA.
For this idea I have used the concept of folklore and fairytales as inspiration. More closely looking at Alice in wonderland. The song and the music video are already very trippy. It is something a little different for the band.
This is slightly similar to the concept behind 'Waltz' by Rachel Sermanni.
The men are very mainstream looking. But also have a bit of irish country flair. Which I think could work well with the concept.
I would like there to be an establishing shot of a large tree in a forest with lots of branches. There will be three or five people sat in the tree. I would like the theme to be very abstract and whimsical. There are cups, saucers, tea-pots etc hanging from the branches.
The models I plan to use in the music video will be a happy medium of victorian era and very futuristic, Lady Gaga style makeup and hair. I would like two female models and a male model. For the male model's inspiration I would like to use The Mad Hatter.
For what will happen throughout the music video, I would like a section for the characters to be sat in the tree's minding their own business. The lyrics of the song begin with 'loosen up and lose your mind, you never know what you could find on the other side'
I would then like the line 'A hundred thousand butterflies
Floating in the orange skies above my head.' to show one of the models inspired by butterflies, e.g.- butterflies in her hair, on her dress. hanging around her.
I would like a section where the models are painting the white roses red, to reference the red queens act in Alice in Wonderland.
For a later section in the song I would like a birds eye view shot down on the models layer in the grass on their backs in a circle.
For the ending I would like a different girl to wake up from underneath a tree with a book in her hands, during the lyrics *All of the things that made you feel better
You should write it all down and put it in a letter. [x2]*
Again this should reference Alice in Wonderland. As i feel the lyrics and the track very much suit this concept. In a dream like form. Some of the lyrics will be synced with lip-syncing.
Teeth is a track by Lady Gaga. I watched the music video and I think it had a lot more potential. I would like to use a lot of special FX make-up for this as Lady Gaga, the artist is very into the special FX look. In 2010 Lady Gaga wore a dress made completely from raw meat. This shows her image as being very eccentric and quirky.
The song seems to be referring to vampires, as the lyrics go. "I got my vamp" though in the video there is little reference to vampires or fangs.
I would like there to be several elements of performance in this music video. Including, dance and lip syncing. Lady Gaga is also known for her dance breaks so this will suit the video.
This will be a very dance heavy music video. It would be filmed in an open space such as the studio using little or no props. The costume will be one of the main features in the video, and there will be little or no narrative other than expressing yourself which is a big part of GaGa's music.
I would like a lot of facial close up's to show the FX make-up and the wounds on other dancers.
As the video goes on, more and more dancers will be killed off until there is only the main character left.
Nearly all of Gaga's tracks are dark and mysterious. This will fit well with her idea of worshipping the devil and living with the undead.
The human league are an electric new wave band from Sheffield. They are currently made up of 3 members, two women one man. The band originated in the 80's and still incorporates a lot of 90's themes.
The music video is in the same style as Madonna's like a prayer, it is filmed following a young female and her journey. It also focuses on the singers.
I would like to change the theme up but keep the idea of having a male and female singer.
I would like to have the man stood on a stage performing the song with the lights and sound crew doing all their set up.
With the lyrics "you were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, when I met you" and I would like to have the woman singer cleaning tables in front of the tables. In a waitress uniform. There will be several shots of her watching him and him watching her, singing to her.
This music video recreation is similar but I would like a stronger storyline with the waitress.
Halfway through the video, the bar audience will fill up, and the girl will take the stage, singing her part.
Towards the end the male singer will see himself on stage with her, signing to her making it all very dramatic and soppy.
I will use the original artists for the costume, hair and make-up look. Keeping it as authentic as possible to the 80's.
1. What did you do to prepare for the lip sync task?
As a class we all decided to wear black, this is because we had seen the set and didn't want to class with the set. We chose to look at a military theme as Taylor is a representative of strong independent women.
2. What did you do in the studio?
I worked in front and behind the camera. I had to mouth the words as the song was played of a loud speaker system.
3. What did you learn?
I learnt how to match a soundtrack to lip syncing. I also learnt several different techniques to create a visual on Adobe Premier pro. 4. What did you do in the suite, what steps did you take to cut the video?
In the suite I took lots of advice on how to match the video and sound perfectly so the lip syncing fit the track. This also involved removing the sound from the video clip and just using the backing track with Taylor Swift on it. To use straight cuts I placed lots of sits on top of each other and cut them accordingly to what suited.
5. What did you learn about editing music video? One of most interesting things I discovered when editing the challenge, which I will definitely look out for when producing my final music video is how two shots need to make sense. For instance, If I decided to use a shot of the guitarists upper body and head and then cut to the piano being played showing only the keys, this would not make sense. It would make sense to take the shot of the guitarists head and link it to him or her playing the guitar.
6. Did you make any mistakes on the day, how could you shoot or cut the video more effectively next time?
As this exercise was only practice and fun, I feel a lot of the mistakes we made *eg, not timing the shot correctly* were made to work in the video. When cutting I feel we did it as simply and speedily as possible which would not be too desirable for the final product.
