Music Video Moodboard

Andrew Goodwin Theroy

The theory Goodwin puts forth states that there are 5 key aspects of a music video;

-Thought through beat (seeing what the lyrics mean in the viewers audience)
-Relationship between the song and visuals
- Narrative and performance of the song
-Technical aspect of a music video
-Star image (protagonist)

Thought through beat

The first of this step according to Goodwin is to analyse the music structure understanding the chorus and verses.
The second step is to ensure that the voice of the artist is unique compared ti others and should give the person a for of identification that can be related to the star image or singer
The third step is the story if the artist, the message which he is trying to expand and tell within the song. the final aim is to establish the artist as a story teller. And the music video can aid this by showing us the visual representation of the vocals in the song

Relation between the music and visuals

There are three ways visuals are used to promote a song;

Illustrate,
Music videos use certain images and camera shots to illustrate or expand on he meaning of lyrics of the song.

Disjuncture,
In this situation, the meaning of the song is completely ignored in favour of a more abstract visual aesthetic.

Amplify,
This is when images and camera shots are manipulated and shown repeatedly through out the music video.

Relation between the music and visuals

Andrew believed that a music video can promote a song by the way it analyses and visualises the lyrics. this can either be done extremely literally or not at all. for example, if the lyrics in the song say JUMP!, than the actors on screen could jump.

Analysis of Music Videos

The first music video i analysed was "No surprises" by Radiohead, the band from which made my chosen film "National Anthem"

The first thin we notice when watching the video is its simplicity, The entire video is a static close up, with no variation in shots or camera angles, whilst at first this would seem like a negative, we quickly realise that it perfectly captures the songs melodic, fairytale sound.
If we analyse the lyrics of the song, we understand that it is essential the story of a man who commits suicide by C02 inhalation, and the visual aesthetic captures this perfectly.
Water fills what appears to be a glass helmet around the subjects head, as the water rises the subjects head becomes distorted and magnified. Whats interesting about this is the fact that no camera techniques or editing choices were used, this was all physically done. By using physical techniques that dont rely on a camera, the video immediately connects with the audience, as this is so different to essentially every music video, its almost eerie static camera mimics the audience, unmoving, a fly on the wall as we watch this subjects helmet slowly fill with water.
The lighting of the video is also worth mentioning, rather than a clear source of light, the video is lit up by almost entirely coloured l.e.d lights, the result of which is that only certain parts of the screen are lit up, further distorting and shadowing the subject, its only half way into the song where tungsten lights outlining the glass helmet are turned on, white washing the subject. The use of these lights create an almost cold calculated atmosphere to the video, which does indeed represent the lyrics of the song.

If i were to incorporate anything from this video into mine, it would be how simplistic and experimental the visual aesthetic is in the film, however i will have to analyse the lyrics in the song in more detail before committing to any visual style.








This music video is entirely different to the previous piece is analysed earlier, the purpose of the piece is to push a political message onto the audience, it does this by creating a literal map of mass shootings that took place in America in 2017.

Due to the fact that this is an animation rather than a recorded piece of live footage, it is never the less interesting to analyse. If we pay attention the drum beat of the song, we can se that every flash on the map is timed perfectly so that it corresponds with a drum beat, i found this particularly interesting, the idea of cutting to music or atleast using the main beat of the song as a guidance point to work my editing around. Doing this means that the pace of my video feels natural and free flowing,  rather than having violent cuts throughout the piece which would distract the audience from the song itself.







This song by Rage Against The Machine almost exclusively features footage of news reports, political rallies and protests which all portray the corruption in government.

The found footage in this film at first seems to be completely unrelated to the story, the opening shot is of a 1960's B movie, however as the song progresses we gradually understand the use of this footage and how it relates to the songs message. the music video does show a live performance from the band, whilst this is visually interesting and breaks up the monotony of the video it is not crucial to the song.
The use of political figures contrasted against the seedier underbelly of the power creates a violent opposition between what we are presented with in media, against what actually happens when these people are in power.

The idea of showcasing the political unrest and struggle we face everyday is deeply interesting, i feel that this subject could be perfect for an experimental music video, both literally and metaphorically. I intend to use this subject as the basis for my piece.

National anthem music video + evaluation

When making my music video, my number one priority was to capture the meaning behind the original songs lyrics, the distrust and paranoia, the rising anxiety of social unrest of the individual. This piece was made with the disorientation of the audience in mind, the rapid succession of the images and clips are here to confuse those who watch it.

I wanted to contrast the society we are told to believe in, the utopian, clean, problem free society we see in mainstream media against what we actually live in, the almost dystopian, filthy, paranoia filled we inhabit. The lyrics of the original song speak of a man who has been awoken to the rising social tension around him, whilst not visible, he can sense it. This music video is a physical representation of what he sees.

As mentioned earlier, the video follows a compare and contrast formula, i show the world as shown to us, the impeccable politicians, cold and calculated in there image, against how the general populace sees them, precise and deliberate, surgical with there words and essentially, heartless. The piece is very literate with its metaphors, but for such a meaningful subject matter, i felt that this was the only way to represent it.

The video starts with a static shot of a Tv playing feedback of an old Vhs. This was filmed myself, the purpose of which was to show the foreshadowing of the video itself, how all of the clips shown after are products of the media, lies and exaggerations force-fed to us by the media to lull us into a state of complacency, this also gives the benefit more intellectual weight when i contrast the two versions of the clips against each other.

Every clip i use in this piece (excluding my own) was ripped and downloaded from youtube, this prove to be awkward to do however as every clip varied in quality, the more professional shots such as the speeches given by politicians are well shot and of high quality, whereas footage recorded on an individuals phone such as the grenfell fire video was recorded hastily and therefore, lacking in quality.

For every shot i showcase in my video i created a reverse for them, i manipulate the RGB tones and disrupt the placement of the multiple levels of colour of the video, the result of which produces this ethereal, corrupted visual effect, this was intended to be a representation of how the individual in my analysis of the lyrics see's the world, the distortion intended to be a visual representation of how the society around him refuses to see or even acknowledge the world around them. After this i went frame by frame of footage which clearly shows peoples face, and added Black lines across the eyes and mouth of the subjects, this was incredibly time inducing as every single frame had to be manipulated, i couldn't reuse the lines i used previously, as the individuals of the footage were constantly moving, meaning that the placement of the lines would have been altered. 5 seconds of footage would take 20 minutes to manipulate.
The lines over the eyes of people in the video was intended to be a representation of the individuals recognition of the world around him, anyone showcased in the media is presented as a two dimension individual, there motives and methods dont matter, only them and there actions. This works for both ways, a political figure is presented as a crusader for progress, no matter what there opinion, and a protester in the street is presented as a blight on society, a tool for destruction. I wanted to show the audience that we are all fighting for a cause, we may not agree with each other, we may fight each other, but at its essence, we fight, and we fight for ourselves.

At the halfway point in the music video my own recorded footage is shown, i filmed an abandoned industrial complex just outside of Nuneaton, in the 80's the complex was a hub of industrial might, now it means nothing, a once proud and defined building is now derelict. This was intended to be a visual metaphor for social unrest with our society, how issues and criticisms are spotlighted, then fade forever with no change being granted.

After the halfway point i begin to reverse the footage, i made sure that the cuts were ever so slightly off the beat of the music, this was in order to install paranoia with the audience, to make them feel the disruption to the established formula of the video, just as the individual in my analysis of the lyrics feels. I also begin to fade in tv static as the song progresses, subtlety at first, but then dramatically, and with great intensity. the reversal of the footage and the static of the tv as intended to be a metaphorical and technical representation of a supernova, how under great intensity, everything collapses upon itself. This is obviously a metaphor for how under social tension, at some point a boiling point is hit, upon which total and grand civil unrest, anarchy is met.

Due to the fact that my piece was so time intensive, i had very little time to make fine adjustments to my piece, the cuts on some sections are slightly off compared to the beats of the song, with more time i would have gone over these and altered them so they are set perfectly against the audio. The fact that i used found footage for the majority of my piece disrupted my own filming, no matter i tried i found that all my footage was violently different to the majority of the film, the contrast between found footage and own footage was blatant, and went against my ideas of blending the two seamlessly, with more time id record more footage and select footage which fit perfectly, rather than settling on footage that was only passable.

Music Video plan

My chosen song to use for my unit 36 music video is "National Anthem" by RadioHead. I wanted to make a music video for this particular song as not only is it by one of my favourite groups, but also because the song is robust enough for me to create whatever i wish. The song doesn't currently have an official music video for it, which means that i can comfortably create my own video without subconsciously confirming to themes and motifs put forth in an official video.

To start my planning i analysed the songs lyrics, i wanted to have a better understanding of the song, its atmosphere, its tone, its themes and so forth, the challenge with doing this for this particular song and even Radiohead in general is that there lyrics are extremely vague, with multiple interpretations coming from multiple viewings, overtime i would listen to the song to try and create an interpretation my opinion would change.
my conclusion for the analysis was that it was a metaphor for an individuals paranoia and fear of the society around him, he can sense the rising social and cultural unrest around him, a tinderbox waiting for a spark to set it all off.

trying to visualise a music video for this interpretation of the song wasn't that difficult, the concept immediately came up with was that the video should be a representation of the world around the individual, to compare and contrast how he sees the world around him. The utopian lie that we were all promised against what we truly live in.

Analysis of Lyrics

StoryBoard









The song itself is extremely repetitive in its sound, with an exact constant drumbeat that runs throughout it, i knew i could use to my advantage by using the constant drumbeat as a guide for my footage, the gaps between every beat would show the contrast between my idea of a utopian society and and the violence and cruelty of our world.
The idea of showing the contrast between the two worlds is a very broad topic, meaning that actually recording my own footage would be almost impossible, collecting all the footage would take months or even years to complete, to work around this i thought that using found footage would be much simpler and effective. However this in itself brings forth more problems,
can i insure that all footage is of a high quality?
will the camera work in all the clips be to a high standard?
these are all questions that i will ask myself when gathering footage

I also want to have a key unique style that runs throughout my piece, not only to break up the what would be bland footage collected from youtube and other services, but also to highlight the hatred and fear that the individual in my interpretation would be experiencing.

Proof of concept

A few months prior to my music video planning i was experimenting with premier pro for a personal project i was working on, upon reviewing the final piece of my project i realised the manipulation of the RGB layers of the footage created this distorted, warped and eerie effect to the video. i thought about applying this technique to my music video ( the idea being that the the distortion created by the technique would expand upon my themes of social and cultural unrest, fear and paranoia).


Moodboard








recorded footage

due to the broad nature of my piece, how it relies on found footage so much and how the film essentially relies on it so much, i found myself questioning how my recorded footage would add to it. i spent hours writing plans and storyboards trying to create a perfect place to interject my filming into it.
i realised that any work i create would always seem obvious and pre-planned, therefore  i had the idea to film my experiences in a foreign place, to explore how daily life in a foreign country compares to life in my country.

Music video draft

Carol Vernallis Theroy

Carol Vernallis is a professor of film and media studies at Stanford, she is most known for her Theories surrounding music editing. Vernallis's theory is based around 4 key components that all relate to how a music video feels, its connotations atmosphere and tone for example. these concepts are:
 -Narrative
 -Editing
 - camera movement and Faming
 -Diegesis

Vernallis suggests that a music video is a visual response to the narrative of the lyrics. therfore whatever we see on screen is a representation, either literal or abstract of what the lyrics in the song put forth. However, Vernallis then explains how the narrative may not be completed and can be partial, with the video appearing disjointed, disconnected and appear in fragment, rather than a continuous. A music video always has something driving it forward, this doesn't necessarily mean the narrative, it could the music itself or the lyrics within the song, or any other element of the video.
However if the video is left incomplete, whether technical or narratively, it can lead to the creation of enigma codes within the video, raising the viewers curiosity and intrigue. Although the video may have a theme or narrative that runs throughout it, it is most likely displayed in a montage style, rather than in one clear focus.

Vernalis also states that a clear convention of music video editing is that the video may disrupt the traditional conventions of continuity editing. the editing may also be bought to the foreground, for the  viewer to see, for it to become visible rather than the traditional style of continuity editing. This essentially means that the video will have a style od editing running throughout it which is distinctive for the video, we may see;

-Jump Cuts
-Breaks Of The 30' Degree Rule
-Cutting With The Lyrics
-Extreme Changes In Pace
-Juxtaposed Frames
-Graphic Matches

Vernallis's theory also tells us that establishing shots are one of the key camera features of a music video and are used frequently throughout a music video and also the camera may move in time with the lyrics, extreme shots are also known as master shots and are extremely common.