1) deciding the track
2) Similar track and analysis of their music video
3) Story board (rought sketch) and the meaning behind all the scenes. (line to line)
4) Audience theories that I plan to use.
DECIDING THE TRACK + similar tracks and their analysis
Since A1, I knew that i would work on a music video promotional package task in A2, I absolutely had no trouble in looking for music since i already have a long playlist with a vast range of genre. However, when it came into my knowledge that it would be better if i go for 'POP' genre for my music video, it was kind of tough to come up with one track. One, because of vast range of pop songs and secondly, I do not really listen to pop music.Initially, I had 4-5 songs in my mind and some good shots to go along with them.
1)The first one was 'MATILDA' by a rock band called ALT-J, I liked this song because first, it is aesthetically pleasing and secondly, it is based on the movie 'LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL' which happens to be one of my favorite.
In their official video there is little to no action and absolutely no camera movement, I wanted to add some more creativity in my work, hence, I had to come up with my own ideas.
Since, this song is based on LEON THE PROFESSIONAL, I had a very good source to grab some ideas from. I have seen the movie more than twice, the concept and story I know very well.
LEON THE PROFESSIONAL is a crime/drama film, with its protagonist as a very young girl who became an orphan and lived with her neighbour who happened to be a professional gunman. In their song, there is a verse 'This is from Matilda' this lines is very important and taken straight from the movie, from this i developed the idea of a troubled protagonist with something holding high significance ( in my mind it was a pocket knife or a cigarette lighter) to them which originally belonged to someone who was already dead. Although, this idea is not exactly the same as the movie itself, it is quiet related and similar to it.
However,I decided against this track, as it was 1) not pop, but this is not the only reason, i also ran out of ideas.
2) My second choice was 'LITHIUM' by rock band NIRVANA. this song is based on idea of death bringing together people, I researched a lot on it, more specifically, a man whose girlfriend died, and her death caused him to believe in God again.
this music video contains a lot of action and camera movement. I liked the song, the concept and the music video. however it was too long. Also, even though I did not end up choosing this as my final track, I did developed a range of ideas from this track. From this concept and the background of Lead singer KURT COBAIN and his suicide along with excessive usage of drugs, and also troubled youth from LEON THE PROFESSIONAL, I decided that the concept or the message that I wanted to deliver through my music video is to be of drug abuse and societal control.
More specifically, the damage society has on its young members and how they turn to drugs for relief.
3) Finally, my third choice was TEAM by LORDE. which perfectly fit in to my concept and was luckily pop. The lyrics highly ambiguous served my purpose.
Lorde's most songs are based on the most normal and general idea of teenager's lives. This song is quite similar to her other song ROYALS. hence to conceive ideas, I watched both of the videos and analysed both songs and other that were similar, including, tracks from artist HALSEY, LANA DEL RAY, HOZIER ect.
Since, I wanted to show teenagers in general, I introduced about 3-4 actors,having no connection with each other (at least physically) but they tend to be similar to each other, all symbolizing drug abuse, and being troubled etc. and also to show how its not just few people being effected by society and its control but almost all them. I tried to generalize the issue through this.
There is no narrative, no order or sequence, firstly, because there was no need for it in these particular lyrics and I did not want to build up a narrative myself and secondly, to symbolize that there is no particular order in the lives of these teenagers. it is what it is, everything happens, life goes on and there is no excitement or anything to particularly look forward to. I was inspired by the poetry of Wilfred Owen who was a war poet, In his poetry he wrote in similar way, conveying the message that there is nothing to look forward to by the soldiers. His poetry sometimes did not follow any meter or particular rhyme scheme again to symbolize the disorder and unnaturalness of the situation. Hence, I have heavily used semiotic conventions in this music video.
I would further analyse the lyrics of this music video in the next section along with the story board.
