The themes and ideas in my music video -

The song I have chosen is Settle by a band called CourageHaveCourage, they don't have the song on Youtube however you can listen to it here on their myspace page http://www.myspace.com/couragehavecourage.

From what I have understood from the song it is about the easy and complicated aspects of a relationship, often how it is too complicated to get into so things should be enjoyed. On this note of both complication and simplicity throughout the song I have decided that I will include different props with cannote these themes : 

                                   
                                                                                             (screen shot from my first filming attempt)

• The masks - the Animal masks are an idea I had from the beginning, I wasn't totally sure how I would make them work or how they would fit in with my music video but I thought that the whole idea of confusion of people with masks on would really work during my music video. Luckily with this song what I have decided is that I may get away with the idea of the animals masks if they cannote the idea of complication, I believe that they can do this as the audience will be wondering why it is that the people are wearing masks therefore adding an air of confusion to the video, like the confusion and complication of the song.
  
• The tea - I then decided that if the complication was represented in my music video then the simplicity needed to be shown to the audience as well. I spent a long time thinking about things which represent a sense of simplicity whilst my actors wear the masks. I tried to think of things which didn't just appeal to me and eventually I decided that a cup of tea is a universal symbol of sitting back and relaxing, especially in Britain.  It was hard to think of ways to incorporate this idea, however I decided that I would just have my characters drinking the tea, sat looking relaxed but with the masks on, still allowing the audience to question aspect of the video and reinforcing the complication at the same time.
  
• Relationship - I also wanted to make it significant and clear that the couple in my conceptual part of my music video are in a relationship and are not brother and sister - I didn't know if this would seem the case if they were wearing the same animal masks. Because of this I decided that I would have to put in points where they were holding hands ect to symbolise their relationship. 

Initial ideas

For my initial ideas I decided that I needed to start planning the filming section of my coursework.  I am starting to come up with some ideas now as I have decided that I will be filming a performance and conceptual based music video, focusing on the conceptual side of it in order to try and give some meaning to the lyrics through the video but without having a narrative.

• I have decided that the conceptual based element will be filmed outside. 
• My performance based element I am undecided on at the moment, for where I want to film it, I can either have the band inside or have them outside in the setting of the concept. I'm undecided on this element as bands vary between each of these depending on the band and I'm therefore debating which of the ideas to choose. 
• For my concept I have decided from the lyrics of the songs that the song is about a relationship, however it is focusing on how things just over complicate when they should be simple. I decided that because of this sense of simplicity that the song contains I want to have the couple outside, just the two of them to canote the simplicity. 
• I noticed that in the other videos of the band they have stuffed animals, I couldn't find a reason for this and therefore decided that it must be something that the band like. Because of this, I am now considering that the couple wear masks, in order to also canote the complication in the song. I am unsure on this idea, however when I am imagining my music video I do like the look of them wearing animal masks and I think this will also go well with their stuffed animal idea as I don't want stuffed animals. 
• I want the couple to be in a kind of Alice to Wonderland theme, I will set up a nice little table and chairs and have them with tea and a teapot, I decided on the tea as having a cup of tea is quite simple as well and I think that this idea will go well with my idea. 
• What I think I'm going to do next is start story boarding and see if the ideas all fit together.
• I am also going to go and take some practice shots of setting to see if I do like the surroundings and if I think that this idea will work. 
• I am affraid that my idea will cross into a narrative style but I will have to be ready for this and I might have to quickly research further into narrative music videos. 

Overall I think that my ideas are slowly coming together but I need to hurry up with my ideas as it gets darker and darker as the winter draws closer and therefore my timing for filming will be come ever more limited if my idea remains outside in the woods. I have to consider this and try and find different types of lighting so that my set doesn't get too dull if the sun isn't out and the lighting is dark. I will have to consider other things such as props for this idea to but I think I will go deeper into the prop and equipment issue a little later on, on another post once my ideas are forming together and I am ready to film. 

Magazine advertising.

One thing in common with all of these indie bands is that they have used their album cover as their advertising for their album rather than using their face. By doing this the band are making their album recognisable. That way when you see the album you have already seen the posters and you are aware of what the album looks like. Also by doing this the band are able to brand themselves and create an element of synergy by having a recognisable image.  All of the bands have their names centred in the middle of the cover/advertisement, this draws the audience to it as soon as they look. This also means that the audience of these advertisements will recognise the band name despite paying attention or not.

story board

Directors of music videos - Looking at Arctic Monkeys.

Whilst presenting to the class my progress on my blog my teacher raised the point as to why it was that I found that many music videos started the same. I decided from here that I would look at the directors used by different artists and bands and see if they often used the same directors and if it was therefore the directors idea to have the many of the bands videos the same or if it was person choice by the band, this would allow me to see how the music video is used to fit conventions of each genre. 


Arctic Monkey videos: I found out that this band used the same director for three of their music videos. I went on to find out if Richard Ayoade (the director) had kept similar parts in each music video or if they had completely changed. These are the videos he had produced -  Fluorescent Adolescent, Crying Lightning and Cornerstone. What I found significant when hearing these titles of song was that the first song was that two of the song were on their third album and the other song (fluorescent adolescent) was on their second album. 

Fluorescent Adolescent, which was the first music video that Ayoade produced for the band was a narrative music video, without any element of other types of music video, whereas, the other two music videos, both of which are on the same album are instead performance based videos. They both have different elements of conceptual videos as 'Crying Lightning' has an almost fairy tale element to it. Cornerstone is just of Alex Turner the lead singer, singing, instead of having the whole band performing. 










From looking at all three of these videos which use the same director but all differ I have decided that with this band there first few videos were different but as the band progresses I notice more similar videos and I think this has to do with the band gaining their own sense of style and branding and therefore sticking with an image which they produce.