Me and Emma are planning to use photographs in our music video as a visual motif. Reasons for this are because of the connotations attached to the idea of a photograph - memorise and emotion. Both create a sense of nostalgia, which is something we want to achieve from our target audience. We want to provoke feelings from our audience, and make them think about past relationships. Although this will be hard to create I think with good use of conventions, it is possible.
The sentimental value a photograph holds is personal and meaningful, so we are planning to use hand held camera, so we can have realistic POV shots, adding to that sentimental and empathetic feel that we want to gain from our target audience.
Advertising is a powerful outcome of media, and recently Match.com (online dating site) have created some original and unique adverts for their site. When researching in depth Match.com invested £7 million into the campaign: Start Your Love Story, which aims to "capture that butterfly moment you feel when you find someone special.". I feel these adverts hold a feeling that I inspire to gain from my audience.
When deconstructing these adverts to a further level I discover that the gradient is washed out, possibly representing a 'story book feel', this is again something I am wanting to capture. There are many extreme close ups of the main characters, perhaps to capture emotion and create that intimate sense. I wish to explore these in my own work and see how they work out!
Lastly I found a quote from Katie Sheppard, director of relationships and marketing at match UK, she said: “We’ve always been about helping people find love, and as the best-known dating site in the UK, we have been at the heart of hundreds of thousands of moments like these."
I think this song would be great for my music video, it holds an airy sound, which something that I think a memory would sound like. The lyrics also connote romance, but both the beautiful and ugly side.
"A moment, a love A dream aloud A kiss, a cry Our rights, our wrongs A moment, a love A dream aloud A moment, a love A dream aloud"
During this part of the song I can visually imagine quick jump cuts of montage clips of the charters, I think this is a positive start to my media course and I am looking forward to storyboarding and exploring more song ideas.
Man Ray is an American artist and has worked with a wide range of media, including film. he contributed to the Surrealist and Dada movements. In 1999, 'ARTnews' magazine named him one of the 25 most influential artists of the 20th - It is clear that Man Ray is truly a defining artist, thus he inspires me.
L'Etoile de Mer (1928 Man Ray)
If find L'Etoile de Mer to be very enigmatic; it's simplicity coupled with film technique creates it's audience to be silent and intrigued. I did not want to any reaserch about this short film before watching it so I could gather my own intial opinion, and gain my personal responce. I found it to be highly metaphorical, and the film is in fact the representation of a couple, or/and a love triangle.
I was also interested in the way Man Ray shot his film as it had a very blurred effect, I then found out that almost all scenes are shot either off a mirror like the final shot, or through diffused and textured glass. This is something I would like to explore with my own work. Although it is not high tech, it still creates this mystical lure.
The most defining moment in the film is the ending: The female appears in a mirror with the word 'belle', which shatters. This is symbolic that the love affair is over. I think it is highly important to have a defining ending scene as it is opening scene; this is again something I will aim to achieve.
This is youtube video is a collection of montage clips from the award winning 'Blue Valentine'. Blue Valentines genre is similar to one I want to explore: romance and the idea of young love. I do think this song, 'You & Me' hold many sentimental values, especially the idea of togetherness and unity, thus it would be wise to take into consideration. Another thing I find to be inspiring is the actual shots featured in the clip. The colours and editing clearly hold a blue tone, thus it fitting to its title 'Blue Valentine', this has made me think about potential titles, but also editing techniques.
This is the opening credits to indie film '[500] Days Of Summer'. This was my initial idea when the brief had been shown to me. I like the idea of growing up and memorise, as this video displays them imaginatively. The split screen of two people, who will be eventual lovers is a creative way to show personality and gives the audience a understanding of their past, and who they are as characters. The home video footage is something that especially captures my eye; it's vintage feel connotes a timeless feel and comfort, both something that a relationship can achieve. This is something I want to experiment with this within my music video.
Recently, I have be weighing both pros and cons about producing a short film, over a music video. In conclusion I have decided to partner up with Emma Dickson, someone whom is passionate about music, and has the same visual ideas as me, to create a music video. Reasons I choose this over doing a short film are because I thought it would be outlined as you follow, in a way, the narrative of the song. (I will post possible song choices in the near future).
To gain a deeper understanding about music videos I did some research about the history of music videos, and what makes them so successful.
In moderen day music videos are mainly used as an marketing device, to help promote the records sales. However in the past the music video was referred to as an "illustrated song", and this term is something that I would like focus my work around - making the song come to life.
Here is a great timeline I found that allows to view the history of the music video on a timeline: The Music Video
So why are music videos successful?
A music video, if you like, is just an interpretation of a song. It allows the consumer to engaged with the song on a whole new level: visually. The consumer can connect with the video and/or the song, thus emotion or thoughts are provoked, which is again something I want to achieve with my music video.
Michael Jacksons 14 minute long video for "Thriller", directed by John Landis, was perhaps the most influential music video of all time. Mike Celizic says this about the "Thriller" video: "A watershed moment for the music industry" - for its excellence in merging filmmaking and music.
Although I don't aspire to make a music video like "Thriller" I do think it highlights the importance of why you need strong narrative, clever conventions and editing technique.
Me and Emma are planning to use photographs in our music video as a visual motif. Reasons for this are because of the connotations attached to the idea of a photograph - memorise and emotion. Both create a sense of nostalgia, which is something we want to achieve from our target audience. We want to provoke feelings from our audience, and make them think about past relationships. Although this will be hard to create I think with good use of conventions, it is possible.
