1) R.E.M - At My Most Beautiful
The music video for R.E.M's 1998 track 'At My Most Beautiful' features a combination of narrative and performance. The video cross cuts between band members and a women walking to audition for the cello part of the song. She walks through a busy urban setting often getting knocked over or interrupted. nevertheless, she continues walking, presenting a clear positive message. Through the camera work, the audience get a sense that the band members are waiting for this women to arrive. The creation of a relationship between two characters through cross cutting and a contrasting sense of movement is an interesting narrative technique that we could certainly use during our music video.
2) Firehorse - 'Bloodstream'.
Exemplar student Joe Murray's music video
What we liked about this video is how it uses a strong sense of movement and establishes the character. They have used close ups of her step by step routine to constructs a clear narrative and introduce the character. We plan to shoot a similar opening in our music video to create a confident dual narrative and reveal the two characters to the audience. Another aspect of this music video we took inspiration from is where the characters visit similar locations after time. At 0:49, the couple go into the restaurant compared to walking straight past at 1:45. We believe we could utilise this technique in our music video to generate a sense of change over time and reflection for the couple. At the moment, we are thinking that one of the characters could walk past a location and reminisce about visiting it with their partner. Then, we could cut to them both visiting the location in a flashback. If done successfully, like this music video above has, we believe the audience will get a good indication that the couples relationship has deteriorated over time.
3) Submarine (2010) - Opening scene
The opening scene from Richard Ayoades BAFTA nominated film 'Submarine' has inspired our project through how it introduces a character and specifically, the bedroom location. Our opening shots will be in the bedrooms of each character and so the first appearance of each location is crucial in establishing the characters and narratives. The slow pan around the room, from 0:37 - 0:58, puts the audience in the position of the camera as well as allowing them to get a larger picture of where this scene is set, as if they were looking around.
4) Strangers on a Train (1951) - Alfred Hitchcock
During the planning for our final production, we have taken great inspiration from one of Hitchcocks finest films. In the opening to this film, we are introduced to two characters but we only see their bottom half or their feet. Throughout the opening, each character maintains a single, consistent direction of travel, achieved by the directors not breaking their individual 180-rules. This technique is defniitely something we wish to incooperate into our music video. It may be difficult to maintain it for the entirety of the track, but certainly during the inital scenes when the characters are still being establshed. We wish to utilise this technique as it effectively associates the characters with the audiences as well as creating a sense of parrell narratives and binary opposition. With both characters walking in a clear different direction, like in Strangers on a Train, we believe the audience will recognise their opposition. On top of this, the notion that they are both travelling towards each other will be implied. When the characters leave their house and during montages of them walking, we plan to implement this technique as frequently as possible.
5) Radiohead - 'Burn the Wtitch'
The music video for Radiohead's track 'Burn the Witch' features an prologue and epilogue of a bird chirping. The bird is on its own and all we can hear is diegetic sound. This is a good way to establish a setting in a music video and something we plan to use in the very beginning of our video.
6) Edgar Wright - Hot Fuzz
During the begging scenes of 'Hot Fuzz' (2007), there is a travel montage featuring the main character Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg). DUring this montage, the director Edgar Wright uses an interesting shot that we are planning to incooperate in our final production. The shot is a close up of the character with their head looking out the window. We are looking to use this when the female character is on the bus. The shot portrays reflection and emotes unhappiness.
In our final production, we plan to incoperate some element of texting between the two characters. We believe this would help further establish the relationship (or break down of) between the boy and the girl. However, portraying to the audience that they are texting/ what a text is saying is tricky. At the moment we are thinking of using some special effects to get the message to pop up on the screen. This technique is commonly used in film and television as it elminates the use of a cheesy, cliched over the shoulder shot/ close up of the screen. Using this technique to show text messages doesnt interupt the natural flow and movement of the character. Shows such as 'Sherlock' and 'House of Cards' use this tecnhique which we have taken great inspiration from during our production process.
House of Cards Sherlock
8) The Oh Hello's - 'Like the Dawn'
Exemplar students work: Megan Edwards & Elizabeth Adcock
Another example of students previous music videos that we have taken great inspiration from during our planning. The video confidently establishs the location and character in the opening minute or so, something we need to achieve effectively. Furthermore, the bedroom location is presented in a similar fashion to what we aim to do. The audiences first meets the character in a very similar way to what how we're planning, brushing her hair in front of a mirror perhaps. Another aspect of inspiration we've drawn from this music video is how the students have used photgraphs of the girl and a partner. This gives a subtle indication that the girl is/was in a relationship and definitely something we seek to establish through the use of the cork board filled with photos. Also, this music video features a similar sense of travel and movement in natural locations so throughout the planning process, close reference will be made back to this video to act as inspiration for the montage shots of the characters walking alone in natural locations.
This is a good exploration of the themes, techniques and ideas you've encountered during planning. Strong blog post.
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