1.2 Initial Ideas

Initial Idea (Performance/Narrative)
One of the possibilities for our music video is doing a Performance/Narrative music video. This will consist of a lot of shots of the band performing while a narrative is running along side it. The narrative could be related to the song direct or could deviate slightly, it could also consist of some of one or all of the band members, or It could be a completely random person acting out the set narrative. Some prime examples of performance/ narrative videos would be, Green Day’s “21 guns” video, 30seconds to mars “The Kill” and Three Days Grace “Animal I Have Become”.

Main Idea (Performance/Narrative)

We have decided that if we where going to create a performance/narrative video, that we would have the actual band involved in the narrative side as well. This is because we believe that It will give a better effect overall for there first promotional video to actually have them in it all the way through. It also means when it comes to filming it, there will be less inconvenience in gathering all the actors, and effectively lowering production time. Based on the tempo of the song being quite slow, we have decided that we will mainly use slow cuts rather than fast cuts to help mirror the pace of the song, but we may start to add some slightly faster cuts in when the song reaches the crescendo.
We have also decided that the location where the band performs will also be the same place where the narrative takes place, but the narrative and the band will not be in the same shot. Potential locations that we as a group have come up with are the Terry ‘o tool theatre or Imp Art. The Terry ‘o tool theatre would be more ideal if we wanted to use a lot of lighting but we feel that this would not really suit the song, so we decided that we will use Imp Art as the desired location. This location would also give the desired fell that we want the video to have because it is quite old hall, and we can adapt it to have an abandoned look which we fell will suit the song more. The narrative itself we have decided based on the lyrics could be a love relationship break up, and when the clips of the narrative come on the video they could have a sepia tone to make them look like a memory, and have the performance itself as the present.
We also came up with synchronising the video with the music, so when a symbol smash happens on the drums or when the music momentarily stops the scene will then change.
The camera shots that we could use, will mainly be several close up’s of the band members performing and then some long shots of the entire band performing and in these long shots the camera will be either panning from right to left or visa versa depending which band member it zooms out from, the panning will create a sense of movement and action even when the band members are still, much like Green Day’s video “Know Your Enemy”. The shots that will be used in the narrative will be very varied, because this will have a lot going on so a wide selection of angles will be needed, but quite a lot may consist of close up’s in order to show the characters emotions more clear.
We have decided that we are going to have a minimal amount of effects, because we feel that they do not suit the particular song. But we may use a few subtle effects in order to either empathise something or make it bolder, an effect that we may consider using could be slow-motion because this can really make a video look really dynamic, a really strong example of this effect done well would be Three Days Grace’s new music video called “Break”.

Second Idea (Performance)

For the performance part of the music video making, we commonly see performance pieces from bands as this creates a more personal video, drawing the audience even closer to how to musicians are portraying their feelings through song and shots of only the band in a specific location. This type of video, is commonly used by popular bands such as; Paramore and their single “ignorance”.
For our own video we may include this aspect, as it’s an easier way to draw in an audience and a cheaper way to create a music video for our chosen band. One idea for the music video with the inclusion of pure performance is the band in a studio performing their single without them being in a different location. This idea could be a great way to “show off “the band as the audience would be able to establish the members in the band as this would be their first debut video in front of an audience.
Another idea, which we could use to help promote the band with their first video, is to perform in an area which differs from a music-related set such as a recording studio or within a professional setting. This could be done outdoors or in places which we tend to not relate with the music video, doing so could make our video more realistic within our budget as we do not have to spend too much on the actual making and location of the video.
Doing this would help create a video which gives off a professional finish as many bands such as All American Rejects and Nickelback have succeeded in this type of video, attracting a large audience and following towards their music and videos created in the performance way.
Our group believe a good way in creating a music video is to use all the instruments, which you would find in the studio such as the drum kit and microphones and would like to possibly incorporate this into the band music video. This could be a good idea as this would show the group as a whole without the lead singer being within the video alone or most of the time. This could be a great way in again showing the band off as a whole as it clearly shows who are actually in the band and what their role is.
These ideas could be used to create this video as specific aspects of these ideas above could be used to create a professional music video for the band.

Alternative Idea (Art)

An art music video, tend not to have any meanings to what the audience sees. They are often abstract and thus makes the audience think about what is on screen, a common trend amongst art performances is the use of SFX and graphics on screen. The genre these art performances are often related to is Rock/Indie and sometimes R’n’B.
The lyrics of the song do not follow the common convention of relating to the images on screen. An example of this being used is with “Red hot chilli peppers”.
One idea we can use is; less focus on the band singing, and more emphasis on different graphics appearing on screen. We could even use a wax crayon streak effect, to match the band’s name; ‘Crayola’.
This would create a simplistic almost child like effect, relating to a younger audience as well. Expanding on this, as an overall influence, we could focus on the uses of colour, and representing moods. A good example of this is “Queen of the Stone Age – go with the flow”
Another idea could be to use stop moving characters to create an animated feel to the video, again this could use several effects and graphics making it more obscure. This would relate to more of a ten audience, especially those who are university students. Again, the camera would’t be focused on the band performing as much or members of a live audience, the emphasis has to come on the abstract feel.
Overall, the art performance video emphasises on SFX and lack of continuity between lyrics, images on screen and the narrative. Of the three types, this would probably be the hardest video to create and therefore achieve a good finish.
Also, this style would take the longest to create and would’t fit the style or image of the band, and this could impact on the popularity of their first video, it would also struggle to promote the band coherently to this new audience.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we are most likely lo do a combination of both performance and narrative, as we feel this portrays the bands image the best and promote the band in the best way. In terms of resources, it will also be easier to create and shows more of our camera and editing skills as well as our knowledge of the band. We feel the band would prefer to stay away from the art style, as it does’t really relate to their style of music.