Music Video

Music Video Brief

The song I have chosen to base my music video on is Summer from the album Smoke+Mirrors by Imagine Dragons. I have chosen this song over some of my other choices mainly due to the different ways I can incorporate Goodwin's Theory into the video, with shots being quite literal towards the lyrics and quite Amplifying of the words in the song, for example one of my shot ideas being an actor opening their eyes to the lyrics "Open up your eyes"  to help create and link it to this literal correlation I mentioned. Some basic ideas I have coming into this unit are a Chinese whispers style music video, with extreme close ups on peoples faces as they whisper the lyrics into another actors ear. On top of this some other idea I have come up with are getting the actors to clap to the claps of the song and editing this in time to the beat, following Carols theory on how music videos are edited. The overall ideas I am going to be following within this music video are; introducing elements of narrative and performance style videos through the whispering of the lyrics and the overall theme of Chinese whispers to help create a basic narrative for the viewer to follow. Therefore this video will include elements of both Goodwin's and Vernalises' theories through the different styles of editing and the correlation of the lyrics and the video that I want to include.


Pre-Production/Plan
When entering pre-production for my music video I decided to properly plan out my shots and ideas to make it easier for me when filming the project, when starting off I created a simple written shot list / timeline that would help me keep track of what footage would go where, however as this idea developed I switched the idea to instead using title screens over my chosen song in Premiere Pro (my chosen choice of editing software) as it was easier to read than a long boring shot list and I thought it would help me judge what footage I would require better. When planning it out like this I gathered a better flow for my music video and a better understanding of what belonged where and when to cut shots.

During this time I could develop my idea for the music video and start filling in places on this shot list with my ideas such as wanting to use a lot of shots outside in the sunny weather to help it match with the lyrics of the chorus, with the song being about summer. At this time I knew that shots of traveling in the sun would work well with the pace of the instrumental that follows the chorus, so I decided to add that into my shot list. Another idea that I came up with at the time was the homely setting of the indoor shots, I knew that in production I would have to film somewhere that looks like a home that people live in as well as promoting warm and positive connotations to go with the rhythm and the style of the song, being very positive and rhythmic, therefore in setting this music video inside of a home and really thinking about the mine-en-scene of the background making it look like a well looked after friendly home it helped match the tone I was aiming for within the music video.

My basic shot list before I moved it onto Premiere Pro.

When planning I opened up Premiere Pro with the song in there and listed my desired shots at what time stamps I would like them at, in doing this it helped me set out my plan for the music video and gave me a better idea of the footage i would need to gather.

Finished Product

Evaluation
During this unit, I produced a music video to the song Summer by Imagine Dragons. when producing this music video I set out a plan to make it in a literal style, matching ideas presented by Andrew Goodwin in his theory. overall I believe my finished product matches this style with the video directly copying what the lyrics are saying at times, This is the element of my music video that I feel works the best and the shots that incorporate this idea, I feel work the best out of my video. Another element I tried to incorporate is within Carol Vernallises theory stating that music video often edits towards the beat of the song, and I feel like I have managed to accomplish this at times during my music video, with an example being the actors clapping to the beat and the cuts that join the different clappers together being in time with the song, In these regards, this is exactly what I was looking to create within my music video, to follow these theorists and develop a video that follows these conventions the theorists' layout within their published work.

Looking at the production of my work it is clear that not everything went to plan and I feel like this negatively affects my music video and can be seen throughout as some shots include different visual tones to others, creating this mismatched look, while also other shots sometimes lacking the warm lighting I would use in other shots. The overall effect this had on my finished product is quite negative as I personally believe it makes my product looks less professional and is the main thing I would change about this project if I could go back, with some shooting days I would not gather as much footage as I needed and in doing so it meant I had to reshoot without some of the equipment used in the first shoot. The other stage of production being the editing of the music video, overall I am pretty happy with the pacing of the shots and when I cut, with at most times there being a clear matching rhythm between the music video and the song itself, however, there is at least one point during the music video looking back at that I would cut down as I Feel the shot carries on far too long, However other than that I believe the editing process went relatively well considering my footage.

In conclusion, I believe that my finished product mimics my brief, with some changes because of my troubled production, and creates a music video that works on the ideas of the two theorists and portrays them in a faithful way, while also portraying creativity and matching the style the song creates. Looking back there are areas that I could have improved upon but I believe my music video portrays the song and my ideas in a faithful way.

Reference List

Imagine Dragons., (2015) Summer
Available from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTsbz5fW8-M