(Post 22) Forms and Conventions

The forms and conventions of a professional music video include many different aspects of video making which we'll try to conform to, but also challenge in some areas. In terms of camera angles, professionally made music videos tend to use a range of different shots such as close-ups, long-shots and mid-shots which all help create emphasis on the singer or band, the location they are in and the emotions their song is trying to bring across. Camera movements such as tilts, pans, tracking an crane shots all help follow and trace the artist. Most music videos have the performance of the artist as the main part of the video, sometimes a story is added to the performance, either enacted by an actor or the artist themselves. The transition between storyline and the performance of the artist is often created through the use of jump cuts or fade and dissolve effects, which allow sudden changes from one scene to another. Besides the filming and editing techniques, miss-en-scene is a huge part in creating the right atmosphere and setting in a professional music video. Many music video have artificial lighting with bright neon colours, often seen in pop music videos. Some videos tend to combine the use of light and colour and create a black and white effect to emphasise a particularly sad song or demonstrate throwbacks as part of the storyline. The sound of a professional music video is mainly the vocals of the artist which links with the use of lip-syncing and is used in the majority of most music videos. Sometimes, the video starts or ends with a dialogue or other diegetic sounds which transforms it into a mixture between music video and short film. The use of props is vital in aiding to add to the scene and create significance on particular objects or people. This, as well as costumes, reflects the genre and influence the artist will have on the viewers personal style.

How are you trying to conform/develop/challenge to forms and conventions?

For our music video we considered to conform to most of the form on conventions mentioned above. The song we have chosen for our music video isn't very well known and the video will naturally not have as big of an audience. Because of that, we could have decided to challenge most of the forms and conventions and like the song, make something unusual to attract the already existing fan base who would expect a more alternative and less conforming music video. Instead, we decided to do the opposite and conform to most of the conventions, simply because this will give us a greater chance of attracting an even wider audience who would be less likely to listen to the song by choice. Our aim is to attract people from different genres which will be more achievable if we don't create something too unusual. For example, we will be using a variation of different camera angles such as close-ups, mid shots and longer shots to create an emphasis on the strong emotions of our characters and the locations which link with the lyrics of the song. Similarly, the camera movement won't be any different to the forms and conventions of a music video, as we'll be using pans to follow the artist playing the piano. We are going to move the camera around the piano to film the performer from different angles and indicate the passing of time as he is telling a story through his song which is shown through jump cuts between the performance and the story line. The jump cuts will also be used within the storyline to cut between different memories from different days at different locations. Even though this conforms to the forms and conventions of music videos, we'll try and develop these conventions to create our own filming style in terms of the use of camera angles and movement which can be recognisable and fits the atmosphere of the song. We'll be challenging the conventions of lip-syncing which is very common in professional music videos. We chose not to use any lip-syncing in our video but also didn't want to get rid of any performing act, as this tends to increase the chances of selling copies and video clicks. Due to this, we decided to show the artist playing the piano whenever there are instrumental parts in the song and show the storyline whenever there is singing in the song. In terms of mine-en-scene, we decided to challenge the use of natural lighting and only rely on artificial light sources such as lanterns and candles for any of the night scenes we are planning to film. We liked the idea of including a dialogue at the beginning of our music video, but decided to conform to the sound convention and only use the original song in our video. The props in our music video will play an important role and again this is an aspect where we'll be conforming to the forms on conventions. One of the most important props will be the bow and arrow of the young boy which will be shown throughout the storytelling of the music video. The bow and arrow will create a link between storyline and performance as they'll be hung up above the piano to show the link between the little boy and the artist. Our costumes will probably be challenging the forms and conventions, as we won't be using modern outfits which can be adapted by the artist's viewers. Instead, we are going to use old dresses and shirts to indicate the memories and past of the artist. 

What has inspired you to make your short film or music video? 

Our main inspirations for the idea behind our music video come from already existing videos by the directors Peter Simoneti, Glen Luchford and Kai Z Feng. The first video which has affected the story telling behind our music video the most is a collecting of scenes out of the film 'The tree of light'. It is a very natural video which lots of natural light, fields and abandoned places. This inspired us to build our story around a young boy and his older sisters. It also affected our choice of costumes which have a similar style tot he white suits and dresses which are shown in the video. The whole feel and atmosphere of the story works well with the song we chose for our music video and will be something we are trying to adapt in our own video. The 'Gucci Bloom: The Campaign Film' is a lookbook video advertising Gucci's Ines fragrance. Besides the font of the opening titles which we adapted in our music video, the colours and props of the video really inspired us. We were planning to shoot at a small lake near by, so the scenes of the women swimming and all the flowers around them is a great idea which we might be able to adapt. Again, the colours are very much what we are planning to use similarly in our music video. We found the short film 'Forever Young' after our first day of filming and found that it had a similar style of camera angles which could inspire us even more. The video focuses on two brothers and their daily life of playing and living together. Not only does the story match quite well with our ideas, but it also inspires us to believe in our ideas and create  even more outstanding shots similar to the short film.
Additionally to the existing videos we discovered, the lyrics of the song we chose for our music video is also a major inspiration to our story. The song is all about nature and escaping the crowded urban areas around us. Many aspects of the song such as 'dreaming of a lighthouse in the woods' and 'in your own backyard' fit the atmosphere we are trying to create and underline our use of natural lighting and the setting in woods, fields and our literal backyard.
We took a few still live shots of the video clips we had already gathered from our first day of filming, to demonstrate the impact of the videos we find inspiring.

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How are you planning on integrating and therefore demonstrating this inspiration?

We are mostly trying to demonstrate similar colours in our music video as shown in the videos used as inspiration. The still lives of our own video clips all have quite strong contrasts and saturated colours which we are later trying to adjust in colour correction to create a similar effect as the existing videos. We are also planning to integrate the lyrics of the song into our music video and create a ling between story and song. For example, for the first line of the song 'Shining a little light to bring us back home', we are planning to shoot a scene of the kids walking through their garden with a lantern in their hand. Another idea is to get air lanterns which will be lit and then let go to fit the line 'Leaving a light on in the wild'. Most of our ideas will be based on what we've seen in the videos mentioned above and we'll try to use these inspirations without copying their ideas one-to-one.