Finalised Ideas
After initial brainstorming and completing our research, we had a better understanding of what goes into a music video, and had ideas for our final product. We wrote our ideas down once again, and had discussions about them, deciding what was impratical and what was feasible.
Here's a discussion we had on the 12th of October about our ideas for locations, props etc... and reasons why we chose them.
We had to pitch our idea to our teachers, so wrote all our ideas down, including when people can and can't film during the half term.
Narrative
Our music video shows the story of two young adults / teenagers from where their relationship begins, how it develops over time and ultimately how it ends. The video will begin with both of them being happy and madly in love, but as time goes on, their relationship slowly falls apart, but not for any particular reason. We didn’t want to show any specific event to allow a wider audience to relate to our narrative, instead of a more niche group. Sometimes these things just happen, and it’s unfortunate, and the audience will be left to decide how and why it has happened. We will attempt to show this by using subtle clues, like not holding hands as often, walking together, but slightly apart and so on.
The second quarter of the story will still be positive showing them enjoying each other’s company and having fun, once again with bright colours. They will be walking, talking, and doing stereotypical relationship activities. In the choruses, the performer will be singing and playing guitar, directly addressing the camera to help promote the connection between audience and character.
The middle of the song is the turning point. James Bay sings “…it’s funny how reflections change” and we hope to show the couple’s reflection on the water in Mote Park’s lake, and a ripple causing them to either stop smiling, or one of them no longer be in frame. From this point on, the colours will be cold, which will be achieved in post-production. We hope to use the beach for the last half of the video, showing waves crashing onto the shore and grey clouds overhead, along with time lapses to show time passing. We want the mood of the song to be reflected in the narrative of the video, but more obviously towards the end.
Changes From Initial to Final
On the right, you can see some of our very first ideas, before we had even chosen the song, and I will go on to explain how and why we decided to change or
With our idea that included the older man, we wanted to show him looking through a photo album, which would then zoom into a photo and take the viewer into the memory, or in post-production, overlay the video on top. We went
stick withthese. After analysing the lyrics, our interpretation was that the singer is leaving something in the past, be it family or a relationship.
Originally we wanted to not go for the typical relationship love story seen in many music videos, and we thought of having an elderly man visiting places from his memories with his late wife. This was unconventional, something different, and we would be representing a different age group, but after pitching this to different people, we found that it was perhaps too morbid, and not appropriate for the song. Another passing thought was to show mental illness, but this again was a touchy subject, that would be difficult to portray realistically and show believably.
We then talked about the idea of a relationship breaking down, and since this is quite stereotypical, especially for the singer / songwriter genre, we found it easier to come up with ideas. Furthermore, there are lots of example music videos showing the different ways to approach the subject in comparison to our earlier ideas and so decided this was a good choice.
Meanings / Emotions
I want the audience to feel emotion and be able to connect with our music video, as I already feel that the song is relatable to. Our narrative is about love, an easily relatable subject, which can be expanded to include family. In our video we hope to show things which will engage our audience, such as memories with a loved one, and almost cheesy relationship activities, like holding hands, getting an ice cream together, etc… On top of this, most people have experienced loss at some point during their life, whether it be growing apart from someone or death.
Techniques / Shots
against this because we were unsure how this transition would work, would it zoom all the way in or remain with the photo’s boarder around the video, whether or not there would be colour correction make it obvious that it was a memory to suggest that he can’t quite remember everything, etc… There were too many variables and things to take into account which would be required to make it effective. or else it may look unprofessional.