A2 Media Studies

We have had a range of ideas for our music which we were able to come up with my listening to the song repeatedly and also looking at the lyrics for anything that we would be able to get the video to move along with to ensure that the music video made sense and related to the song and its meaning.

At the start of the video we are going to focus on the instruments and links with the music in order to 'introduce' the band to viewing audiences. To do this we are going to use close ups on the bands instruments and band members faces like in the song 'Reptilia' by The Strokes. We have chosen to do this because it fits into the conventions of the indie genre as well as giving a introduction to the music video before it gets to it's highest volume level with all of the instruments playing in unison.

We have decided that the majority of the video will be a live performance of the song at a gig. At this performance we will be using 3 camera's to catch footage at different angles throughout the song. By using different angles we will be able use a wide range of the footage when it comes to editing in order to use some of the conventions that would be found in indie music videos as well as produce a fast moving video with similar clips that still feel different.

To ensure that we are linking in conventions of music videos, one of the three camera's will be zoomed into the singers face in the video and will have him looking directly at the screen at different parts of the song. This will make the music video seem choreographed and also performed to the audience because of the 'eye contact' established with the camera. This is a common convention in any music video and thus we would like to include it in our production.

However, to make a storyline fit into the music video we will also be taking separate footage in order to link the lyrics with the video. This also enables us to take some other footage to separate the performances of the song and make it more interesting for the viewers. In particular, we plan to do some scenes where we will use one or more of the band members in the 'acting' scenes because we want the video to flow from the performances to the storyline as smoothly as possible.

One of our storyline scenes involves showing the actor(s) in different locations but doing the exact same thing because we think that we will be able to show the development and passing of time clearer as well as add opportunities to add more scenes between each change of destination. We hope to film at three different locations for this scene which will be in a city/busy setting, a town/quiet setting and a countryside/deserted setting which will transition according to the timing in the song (we aim to be at the countryside setting at the end of the song).

Inbetween the transitions in location we hope to be able to use some other acting scenes, such as 'memories' in each location which we would be able to show using effects and transitions. We are aiming to have these memories to be linked with the lyrics of the song as well as produce a variety of scenes to make the music video interesting. We are currently thinking of having a scene in a park (with use of fading to make the girl disappear from the image) and another scene with a band member and an actress having fun with friends.

To make sure that we link in the title and the lyrics there is one scene that we hope to use in the middle of the song and maybe repeat in the chorus's. This scene will include the use of After Effects to layer the actress seem as if she is on the other side of a window (less opaque to provide the idea of imagination). The window will have rain going down it with the band member looking outside of it - this will hopefully link in the 'rain' references throughout the song.

At the end of the music video, we are hoping to show a variety of shots by separating them with black screens cutting up the image into sections. We have chosen to do this so that it links to the 'punches' in the music towards the end of the song. We are going to use the last change in location in this scene because we want to show and finish the transitions from each location which evidently finishes with countryside. In this scene, we would like to show the couple again but not using the effects used in the 'memories' and instead show it as real. They will be walking into the sunset (and if we can - into the sun) so that they look like black figures and begin to lose the audiences identification of the characters. Once far away from the camera we hope to make the girl disappear for the final time at the end of the music to link to the lyrics 'lose a fight' as losing his love.

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