Music video - chosen song and ideas

Bastille - Icarus

Idea:

The music video will be composed of three sections:

• Present
• Future
• The main characters imagination

• The video would open with a teenage girl getting out of bed dressed in a large jumper and jeans, her clothes are slightly dirty and her make up is smudged. 
• It would switch to a clip of her sitting outside in the same clothes (in the dark) surrounded by lots of papers. 
• It would cut back to her in front of her mirror and she would put on new make-up, then her in the kitchen pouring herself a coffee before then pouring some alcohol into it. 
• She is then outside and the camera is following her, she gets bumped into and avoided as she walks through town and down empty alleyways (the singer would be seen performing in the streets and in shops etc whilst she is walking, almost following her).
• As she walks through the town the camera would focus on newspaper clippings in shop windows and posters on trees and lampposts showing pictures of the singer labelled missing and then an article saying that he died from drink/drug abuse. 
• It would then cut back to the clip of her in the dark ripping up bits of the paper (which are now clearly the same articles) gradually getting faster and faster. 
• The video would then progress to her walking past a shop with a couple sitting outside it laughing and drinking coffee, she would then speed up to a run, the clips focusing on clips of the boy, faces of people as she pushes past them and her burning the papers in a fire. 
• Finally the video the video will stop with her coming face to face with the singer, the camera would slowly pan around so that it is an over the shoulder shot, then zooming in showing the girls face with tears and smudged make-up. 
• It would then zoom back out to show her standing in front of a grave, then finally cutting to her lying on the floor in the dark next to the fire.

Audience research

Representation in music videos
What do you think are the main music genres?
What are the main things you associate with a Pop music video?
What are the mains things you associate with a Rock music video?
What are the main things you associate with a R&B music video?
What do women usually wear in music videos?
What do men usually wear in music videos?
What props are normally used in music videos in general?

YOUR ideal music video
What do you like to see in music videos?
What image do you prefer an artist to have on in a music video?
Do you prefer music videos featuring predominantly male artists or female artists?
How long do you think a music video should be?

Representation - Gender

Males
*High status
*Players
*Dominant
*Surrounded by submissive woman
*Rich
*Lots of loose cash to throw around
*Lots of drugs
*Lots of drink
*Gang orientated
*Gangster
*Macho

*Violence
*Poet
*Cute
*Have to work out
*Genre trend

Robin Thicke - Blurred lines

Woman
*Sad
*Heartbroken
*Emotional

*dancing
*performance

*sex appeal
*sexuality

*set their own trends
*Individuality
*Make up
*Costumes

*Focused on relationships

Here are some videos that show the range of representation of woman in the media, these three videos are mainly focusing on the more sexual portrayal of the woman in the media, however some of them (e.g. lady gaga) are putting their own spin on it so that it is actually ironic or shows how woman want to be presented. The scouting for girls video openly uses the male gaze in their video.

The male gaze - "The majority of cameras are males admiring females so the camera lingers longer on females and sexual aspects of their bodies"

Scouting for girls - She's so lovely

Lady Gaga - You and I

Lily Allen - Hard out here

Technical codes for music videos

Camera shots
The video will often include a range of different camera shots, this can range from extreme close ups to extreme long shots. This helps to tell the story but also give different points of view (maybe the singer is being watched or followed) and also allows the viewer to watch other things on the screen besides the singer so that they don't get bored.

Sophie Ellis Bexter - love is a camera        Rihanna - Russian roulette        Panic! at the disco - this is gospel

Camera movement
Editing
Post production digital effects
Post production digital effects are things that are added to the music video after it is filmed to help add extra touches to the video or make it easier for audiences to view it. this can be done through a variety of techniques, some helping to make the video more visually interesting or different and others just to help the viewer understand what is going on in the video.

CGI - this includes the use of green screens and special effects within the video so that the musician can add a strange element to their music video to help give it more of a story or just make it look weird and more interesting. This is shown in Katy Perry's E.T.:

It is also used in Linkin park's Waiting for the end:

Lighting
Mise -en-scene
Mise-en-scene is the costumes, make up, hair and general setting of the music video. Most people generally associate it with the costumes, hair and make-up that the female artists where but it does also reference to the clothes worn by male artists as well as the set or location that they have chosen to film their music video in; whether it be to help tell a story or just because it looks good.

Costume:
Katy Perry - Roar








Lady Gaga - Telephone

Location:
Bastille - Pompeii

Panic! at the disco // This is Gospel

Panic! at the disco // This is Gospel

Meaning of the song - Some interpret this song to be about suicide and the people who live after their loved ones have taken their lives

This is gospel for the fallen ones
Locked away in permanent slumber
Assembling their philosophies
From pieces of broken memories
Music video - The camera pans up on the singer lying on a hospital bed, hes starts lip syncing to the words whilst keeping a straight, blank face.
Meaning - The song writers are trying to use their lyrics to explain, to those who are left behind, why people commit suicide and how even though their life seemed like it was happy and they were kind and smiling that it might have actually been hard for them to live it.

Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart [x2]
Meaning - This is how the person feels deep down, that even though they don't show this torture, they feel it in their heart.

The gnashing teeth and criminal tongues conspire against the odds

But they haven't seen the best of us yet

Music video  - There is a flash of light (almost as if a light has been turned on) and doctors starts to examine and pull at his face and body before then covering him up with a hospital blanket and putting a cross over his heart.
Meaning -  They are torn apart and pushed towards suicide by the people who bullied them in life and made life hard for them and because of this they weren't able to see all that the person offered and as a result the society is now stuck with the bullies who don't deserve to live and love and have lost the people they actually care about.

If you love me let me go

If you love me let me go

Music video - At this point the singer pushes off the doctors and oxygen mask and sits up, fighting of the doctors.

Meaning - The lyrics are saying exactly what it means, that if the people who love them really do love them then they should let them go, they should be excepting because life isn't happy for them.

Cause these words are knives and often leave scars

The fear of falling apart

And truth be told, I never was yours

The fear, the fear of falling apart

Music video - The doctors restrain the singer and start to strap him down to the table so that he cant 'escape' again.

Meaning - The words that someone says can actually hurt another person, no matter how much

they say it or how much they mean it and that, even though, we teach our children that "sticks and stones may break their bones but words will never hurt them" they can. "I never was yours" also refers to the fact that we don't actually belong to society and its norms and values and that we can be free of them, its just that we are too scared not to be and that the only way that they can see to get away from that is to take their own lives.

Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart [x2]

Music video - the doctors put an injection into the singers arm causing him to go to sleep, he then 'wakes up' but is no longer on the operating table.

Meaning - This is how the person feels deep down, that even though they don't show this torture, they feel it in their heart.

This is gospel for the vagabonds,
Ne'er-do-wells and insufferable bastards
Confessing their apostasies
Led away by imperfect impostors

Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart [x2]
Music video - The morticians start to dress the singer in a suit and tie and put make up on him and do his hair as if getting him ready for an open coffin viewing, as you would do a dead person, they then lower him down into a wooden coffin and nailing him into it.
Meaning - They are shouting out to the other people who feel this pain and sense of loss and who feel led astray and controlled by things such as religion and society, frowning upon suicide and labeling it as a crime and a cowards way out, saying that they don't need to feel that way and they just need to confess how they feel.

Don't try to sleep through the end of the world

And bury me alive

Cause I wont give up without a fight

Music Video - They start to pour water into the coffin so that it starts to fill up around his body, eventually covering his face.

Meaning - It is telling them that they don't have to commit suicide but that they also don't have to follow society, they just need to fight to survive and show people that they are brave and they are tough and that they wont just give up because society and life is hard, that they will live out the life they were given  and that the only way to survive is to keep on fighting, not by killing themselves and giving their loves ones another thing to mourn. 

If you love me let me go
If you love me let me go
Cause these words are knives and often leave scars
The fear of falling apart
And truth be told, I never was yours
The fear, the fear of falling apart
Music video - The singer breaks through the coffin and starts thrashing around within explosions of water that fill the screen, he then proceeds to start breaking through the hospital walls and the doctors following ripping through the plastering to try and get to him as he 'escapes'. When the doctors catch him then rip open his shirt and pull ropes from where his stomach should be a tie him up with them.

Oh, the fear of falling apart

Oh, the fear, the fear of falling apart

Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart [x4]

The fear of falling apart

Music video - The singer tries to escape the ropes and the doctors and eventually breaks free of the bonds that are holding onto him. The video ends with him running off in silhouette

Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?

The artist has used a series of close-ups throughout their video to help show facial expression. This makes us feel more connected with the artist or character in the video and allows us to properly understand the emotion that is portrayed through the actors (or artist) within the video.

how is the record company looking to sell this track?

The record company is looking to sell this track as an emotional or heart felt track, choosing instead to focus on the meaning of the lyrics and sentimental value of the video instead of the sexualisation of woman and performance. This is clearly shown through their decision to make a more narrative video than one filled with performance elements.