Music Video: Final Concept

Music Video: Final Concept

General Narrative and Plot

My final decided concept for my A2 music video follows the intimate relationship of a married couple over the 18 years that they have been together. The music video focuses on various elements of their relationship, such as nostalgia when recollecting their own youth, the family they have created and raised, and the connection between the two and the eternal love shared. Structurally, the video will be filmed through a complete cyclical narrative: showing the start of their lives and then finishing with the current stage in their life. The narrative follows the couple recollecting their past through their own handwritten love letters and photographs, symbolising the bond that they so deeply share with each other. However, in order to stay true to the lyrics, there will be a loose relationship between the visuals and lyrics by showing the distance that the couple sometimes face, but in the end, they always come back to each other. The video opens with a slow-panning shot of a fireplace and photographs of the couple when they were younger and in contrast, the video ends with a secondary shot of a fireplace but then pans to photographs of their engagement, wedding and their children. The video, in essence, is a tribute to everlasting and undying love.

Song Choice

The song that I have chosen to create a music video for is "Keep On Loving You" by Cigarettes After Sex. It is important to note that the band, Cigarettes After Sex, covered this song that was originally performed by REO Speedwagon. I believe that this will act as an advantage as this allows for a wider and older audience demographic to be interested in my music video, as REO Speedwagon is an American rock band that formed in 1967, thus meaning that there will already be an established fanbase. This will in turn, push an older demographic to listen to the cover of the song done by the American band, Cigarettes After Sex that was formed in 2008.

Location

Here, I have included photographs that I have taken of locations that are going to be used within my music video. The location of any music video is significant as it determines how well the overall narrative flows and establishes a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals (i.e. the setting). Staying local will allow me to take advantage of the beautiful heritage of Ilkley, and allows me to manage my time around other areas of my filming and production process; such as editing.

Considering that I will be filming through November and finished by the end of the month/early December, the trees on The Grove are laden with lights that illuminate the pavements, I will also take advantage of this as several frames of my footage will have these lights shown, in order to heighten the romantic mood of the video.

Aside from utilising the main town of Ilkley, I will also seek to film on the Moors for one of the more panoramic shots of the music video. The natural setting may pose some issues with lighting, because of this, I will seek to utilise an extra light source that will enhance the film exposure so the footage won't be dark. However, if this isn't as successful as I hope that it will be, I can always use post-production editing to enhance the brightness of the footage.



Mood

Even though I have changed my concept, my influences from other music videos and artists hasn't wavered. I am still very much influenced by The 1975's music videos as they show raw emotion of the band members and actors, whilst also sitting comfortably within the codes and conventions of an Indie music video. My music video will conform to these genre conventions, for example, through technical codes such as dark, brooding lighting. The post-production editing will mean that the footage is edited through slow-cuts, as apposed to quick-cut edits, although, I will not exclude quick-cuts entirely. In my first music video concept, I intended to have shaky camera work that would enhance the grittiness of the footage but also aid to the success of the overall narrative, however, since I have changed my concept, the transitions and filming will be stabilised as to provide a smooth effect, much to mirror the romantic mood.

The 1975 utilise Colour Psychology throughout their videos and considering that I will use their videos for a main influence from the realms of the Indie genre, I will also incorporate this ideology. However, it will not be my main focus, I will instead use more symbolic codes (such as a close-up camera shot of a fire - symbolising desire/love) to aid the narrative, the subtle use of Colour Psychology through post-production editing will only enhance my intentions.