The document discusses three potential ideas for a music video assignment. Idea 1 focuses on the song "Send Them Off" by Bastille, featuring a narrative of the artist's mental battle through various settings. Idea 2 centers on "Call It What You Want" by Foster the People, with a bullying narrative relating to the song's lyrics. Idea 3 is based on "Exchange" by Bryson Tiller, portraying the artist's emotional struggles through isolated performance and an illustrative narrative. The author prefers Idea 2 due to its strong narrative potential from the meaningful lyrics. However, editing would need to control the storyline pace to make it sufficiently challenging. Ideas 1 and 3 are seen as less unique and potentially difficult to execute effectively.
2. Inspiring Ideas from my Research
■ Use of a mainly performance based video as this fits the genre my group
is looking to replicate.
■ The use of a completely black background (infinite black) in order to
focus on just the artist.This would work well with the performance parts
of the video.
■ Not to make the narrative too abstract and a lot more obvious because
otherwise the audience will not understand it.
3. Idea 1 – Bastille “SendThem Off”
■ The song is in the indie genre.The song will have a narrative because the lyrics
have a lot of meaning to them but there will be a lot of performance.
■ The artist will be portrayed as very trendy in the current society so he will
appeal to the audience.This means he will be not be wearing anything
outlandish but more just what would be considered ‘normal’ clothing in today’s
world.This will add to the realism and make it more relatable.
■ In the video there will be a illustrative narrative in which the artist is going
through a mental battle and this could be seen through the use of many
settings e.g. bars or isolated areas.
■ Because there is a high amount of performance in this video this fits the
conventions of the indie genre. Also a lot of indie songs today have a deep
meaning via the lyrics and the video and this idea should be able to convey
both of these.
4. Idea 2 – Foster the People ‘Call ItWhat
YouWhat’
■ This song is also part of the indie genre.The lyrics will help build a very strong
narrative which is the main reason I like this song.Also the genre means there
will be a strong performance part in it.
■ Again the artist will be a very ‘normal’ person in today’s society in order to
make the narrative relatable to the audience. It also adds to the realism.
■ There should be a strong narrative in the video as the lyrics have a lot of
meaning.There would be a bullying aspect as the song includes lyrics such as
‘hide your bruising from all your enemies’.
■ Again this idea is very conventional within the genre as there is a strong
meaning within the lyrics and narrative and the performance aspects.
5. Idea 3 – BrysonTiller ‘Exchange’
■ This song is within the R&B genre.This means the song is a lot more romantic and
personal compared to other songs.This can be used in the narrative.
■ The artist will dress fashionable, but there will be somewhat of a dark theme due to his
emotional struggles which could be seen in the narrative.
■ There would be a lot of performance in isolation which represents how he has lost
whoever he is talking about. In addition to this there would be an illustrative narrative
to help support the lyrics.
■ This idea is fairly conventional for the R&B genre as a lot of the songs are romantic or
about love, and this idea is just one way the genre portrays these conventions.
6. Which Idea I Like the Most andWhy
■ The idea I like the most is the ‘Call itWhat youWant’ idea because the lyrics would be
very effective in creating a strong narrative.The mise-en-scene would be fairly easy to
reproduce because the lyrics are very realistic and therefore would be relevant in a
normal setting.
■ However this is not the most challenging but I believe the strong narrative you could
create using this song would still make the video very high quality.
■ One way we could make it challenging would be by the use of editing to control the
pace of the storyline as the idea itself is very easy to produce.
7. Potential Risks or Concerns
■ There is not much unique with the ‘Send them Off’ idea which may
mean it will be very similar to many other videos. Also one concern is
how we will be able to consistently portray the idea of the artists mental
battle to the audience and how we can relate this to the lyrics at all
times. It is somewhat of a difficult concept.
■ The ‘Exchange’ idea is not very unique either and may require a lot of
time to film as we would want to use some dark settings. Another
problem with that is that our lighting will need to be very high quality so
that the literal quality of the footage is not bad.