Lyric Moodboard

Here I have created a moodboard of how I visually imagine the lyrics. The images convey the mood of the lyrics and give an insight into how I interpret the song. 

Lyric Analysis

Originally, the lyrics of the song were wrote by Chris Martin to his wife Gwyneth Paltrow who had recently lose her dad. It is about him trying to be there for his wife not matter what and wanting to comfort and protect her.

Therefore, many people relate to the lyrics as them wanting to be there for someone else, in particular aloved one. Therefore their interpretations of the lyrics are about the persona wanting to be there for someone and help them.

However, I wanted to present the lyrics in a different way, by focusing more on the individual and more psychological pain rather than pain of missing someone else.Therefore, my own lyric analysis consists of someone who is suffering interanlly with themselves and about them wanting to help fix themselves, to be happy again. Also with the lyrics and the chorus repeating, this demonstrates the continuous cycle of neverending pain that she feels.

Storyboard

StoryBoard

Final Song Choice

I came to the conclusion that my final song choice would be 'Fix You' by Coldplay, as it is one of my favourite songs and I felt that by listening to the song, it encouraged me to think creatively of video ideas that I could produce for it.





However, I decided to record the song as an original, of my friend singing a cover of the song. This is because I feel it will enhance my creative abilities and more reliable as my own music video.

Second Initial Idea

Beyoncé - Pretty Hurts

 

Another idea that I had, was to perform a narrative music video with elements of performance in it, to the song 'Pretty Hurts' by Beyoncé. The concept of the video is a girl who struggles with self-esteem and has no confidence with her appearance. In the first two minutes of the video, the shots are slow which matches the slow pace of the song, and a variety of cross cuts will take place to show the girl constantly obsessing over her appearance and weight etc, whilst compring other girls in society. However, for the second half of the video, when the tempo increases; the narrative of the video goes on to portray the extremity of how much the girl is depressed and will connote how she is feeling on the inside. A range of editing will take place, including slow motion of her smashing a mirror and crying, foregrounding how she feels on the inside. 

My first Initial Idea

Initially, I spent many hours researching through Youtube and social media a range of different songs to find inspiration to create my own music video. After several hours, I came across the song 'Grow old with me' by Tom Odell, which I immediately enjoyed and created images and ideas that I could create which would match the lyrics to the song. 

I then found inspiration from the music video, as I liked the theme of young love between the two children and felt that I could develop on this idea and create my own narrative to the song. 

The concept of the video tells the story of a girl and boy who grow up together from toddlers to old age and how they fell in love. It would begin with an old woman who finds a box of old photos and begins to look through them, showing photogrpahs of a girl and boy together at a range of different ages. Then, a zoom from the camera would go to the photograph and would begin by featuring recordings of them playing together through fields and being best friends. Then a variety of fast paced cross cuts would show the two of them growing up at different ages and how they develop from friends to lovers. Then at the end of the video, it would go back to the old woman who turns out to be the girl from the photographs and it concldes that she lost her husband to the war, yet the memories of them together will live on.

Idea mindmap

Here is a mind map that I created of the initial ideas that I have developed from the inspiration of other music videos, to help me decide on the music video that I would like to create and to decide on the narrative or abstract element. 

Inspiration

I began research of other music videos currently already published and find inspiration on the type of music video that I would like to create.

Before I could decide on what genre I wanted my music promo package to be, I wanted to research online the process of how to plan a music video of low budget, so that I could follow the same technique.

I decided to search into the Google search engine: "How to create a music video of low budget" and found several websites relevant.

However, the only website that I found very useful was the following:

https://mygigs.com/blog/how-to-make-a-low-budget-music-video/

I feel that this website would be very helpful and would help me a lot during the planning and pre-production stages that of my music video. Including tips of how to manage my cost and provides ideas for low-budget locations.

Music Video Inspirations -



I found this music vide very inspiring as I felt it was so creative and original, as I had never seen anything like it before.  I loved the brilliant use of special effects and editing throughout the video.



I found this music video inspiring as I really enjoyed the narrative and wanted to incorporate parts of it into my own music video. For instance I enjoyed how the audience were let in on her secret of knowing about the affair and felt that the audience can sympathise with her as they are apart of her emotional journey. I felt that this video connected the audience with the music video really well and want my music video to have the same effect.



This music video really inspired me as I felt the narrative was something that would be able t connect to a lot of audience members and was very similar to the narrative idea that I have. Furthermore, I also enjoyed the special effects included throughout the video, such as the use of slow motion, which I found really effective and would want to incorporate into my own music video.

What makes a good product

As part of my research I went on youtube and watched several music channels to watch a range of music videos to analyse both the positive and negative aspects of them. Below I have included a selection of some of the videos that I watched, spanning across several genres and have briefly summarised them.

The conventions of a good music video are:

This music video does not have a narrative as it is purely a performance and more of an abstract music video. However it does feature some conventional features of a pop music video with the use of costume, props and locations.

Positives:

• Editing pace matches the tempo of the song
• Some events of the music video match the lyrics of the song
• Colourful use of costume and location which is engaging to watch and was considered effective at the time the video was published as colour film was not very popular, therefore demonstrating a lot of money was spent on the video. Also the bright colour allows the band to stand out and suggests that at the time they stood out from all other bands and artists. It also attracts a female teenage audience, which would of been there main target audience, with the use pink in the costume and the background.
• Use of performance - Lip-synching and band iconography of instruments
• With the location of them on stage, and the use of the performance element of them lip-syncing, creates an image of what they would be like at a live concert and sttracts the audience to want to go and see them live.

Negatives:

• Lack of narrative
• Length of shots too long, gets boring
• Bad use of cinematography, shots of band members poor as missing their heads off and extra space not needed.
• Poor camera movement due to lack of editing

This music video is also of the pop genre and also does not have a narrative, it is an abstract video which continually consists of the performance element. It contains many conventional features of pop music videos such as costume, props and locations.

Positives:

• Good use of mise-en-scene, with costume and the colour theme all matching and suiting the pop style.
• Fast paced editing which matches the tempo of the song
• Good use of cinematography which includes a wide range of different camera angles and shots which keeps the video interesting
• Many elements of performance such as lip-synching and dance choreography which is conventional of the genre, but also is enjoyable to watch.

Negatives:

• Slightly too repetitive which could appear quite boring
• No narrative so therefore no relationship between the music video and the lyrics
• Lack of different locations as it was all filmed in a studio, which although is conventional for an abstract pop music video, but it came across repetitive.

This music video also is a prime example of Laura Mulvey's theory of the media portraying women to please men. For example, with the use of camera shots accentuating certain areas of the female body; along with the use of mise-en-scene as the main artist's costume is a short dress which may e appealing to the male audience.



This music video is of the Indie genre and consists fully of narrative as it features no abstract qualities or performance element. In addition, it does consist of some conventional features that you would see in other music videos of the indie genre.

Positives -

• Emotive narrative which matches emotive song and genre, keeps the audience intrigued.
• Editing matches the pace of the song
• The dark lighting and filter matches the sombre mood
• Unexplained storyline, encourages audience's own interpretation

Negatives -

• The music video does not match the lyrics
• Shots on for a long period of time, quite boring
• Not a wide variety of cinematography
• No special effects which although add to the theme of realism, does appear quite boring
• No performance element

Knowing what audiences consider to be a good music video is beneficial to me, as I can apply the results that I have collected from my research and can apply this to the production of my music video, so that it appears professional and aesthetically pleasing.

The Brief

A promotion package for the release if an album to include a music promo video together with two other products:

• A cover for it's release as past of a digipak (CD package)
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD package)

Skills Development Essay

Skills development essay from rubymoorex