The document discusses different music videos from various genres and their conventions. It analyzes videos like "Something" by The Beatles, "I Know What Love Isn't" by Jens Lekman, "Until the Quiet Comes" by Flying Lotus, and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" by Radiohead. It then outlines a plan to make a music video for a song by Swedish pop musician Jens Lekman, drawing inspiration from the one-shot style of "Oxford Comma" by Vampire Weekend but allowing for cuts between locations.

2. IDEAS
While I am not a fan of chart music I think that making a music
video for a pop song would be a lot easier than making a video
for a different genre of music, because of how well-established
the conventions of a pop video are, while most music videos I
have seen for more alternative music have been experimental
and unique, so I am not sure that there are a defined set of
established conventions for alternative music videos. I will be
analysing different music videos from all different genres to
create a pitch for my music video.

3. “SOMETHING” BY THE BEATLES
This music video is just made up of shots of the members of the Beatles
and their wives/girlfriends. It is a simple and quite literal interpretation
of what the song is about in the way that what we are seeing is three
minutes of couples having fun and lyrics of the song are about love.
Because of how simple this video is there probably isn’t really much
that can be said about it but I like it for it’s simplicity. The only
convention on display in this video is the use of editing in time with the
music – at one point in the song the video changes with each beat, at
another point by tilting the camera towards the sun the frame is flooded
with lens flare and sunlight in time with the build up to the song’s
chorus.

4. “I KNOW WHAT LOVE ISN’T” BY JENS LEKMAN
Jens Lekman is a Swedish musician who makes pop music in the style of bands like
The Smiths and Prefab Sprout (not like the music in the charts now). This music
video was filmed all in one take, which highlights the importance of everyone
involved doing their jobs correctly, so is fairly impressive even as a piece of
filmmaking on its own. Filmed on a handheld camera, this video starts with a close
up of Jens Lekman’s shoulders and tracks backwards to reveal the backing band
playing with him when the chorus begins. Shot against a white background with all
musicians wearing black or grey clothing, I think this video is very nice to look at,
at a glance you may even mistake it for being in black and white. At one point in
the song Jens mouths the lyrics to the song incorrectly, and while this appears to
be a mistake, on commenter on the video suggested that this was a metaphor for
Jens’ inability stick to a lie, which is what he is singing about when he appears to
forget the words to the song. I think that this theory is very interesting and while
the truth is probably that he did just forget his lines, the idea of using metaphorical
imagery in a music video to tie in with the song’s theme is very interesting to me.

5. “UNTIL THE QUIET COMES” BY FLYING LOTUS
This short film by Kahlil Joseph uses three tracks from Flying Lotus’ upcoming album
“Until the Quiet Comes”, and is designed to promote the whole album rather than
just the single. Shot on 35mm film in Los Angeles, this video has received a lot of
positive praise from critics, fans and other musicians alike for its abstract but
beautiful cinematography as much as it has been praised for the music itself. It
has been described as “Beautiful! Breathtaking!”, “Artistic and clever”, “Visually
stunning” and “Pure surrealism” by YouTube commenters. The film’s mysterious
ambiguity encourages commenters to share their opinions on what the video is
supposed to represent. In under four minutes the film tackles subjects such as
family, religion, death, revenge, and the afterlife, without ever using dialogue. I like
this music video so much because it does not use sound apart from the music
itself, and focusses purely on stunning imagery to tell its story.

6. “STREET SPIRIT (FADE OUT)” BY RADIOHEAD
A lot of music videos will implement a simple gimmick to keep viewers
entertained while watching. This black and white music video directed
by Jonathan Glazer for the band Radiohead uses what I assume is split
screen photography to create an interesting effect that allows the band
members to appear within the same world but for them to be shot at
different speeds. In one shot (pictured) the frontman Thom Yorke
appears to swing a branch along the ground at normal speed, while a
replica of him jumps over the branch in slow motion. In another shot
one band member (shot at normal speed) watches another band
member jump in the air through slow motion. What is happening on
screen doesn’t have any relevance to the song but it is just fairly
entertaining and nice to look at.

7. MY VIDEO
I have decided that my music video is going to be for a song by
Swedish pop musician Jens Lekman. The song I choose to
make a music video for will ultimately depend on who I get in
my group but as Jens Lekman has quite a distinct musical style,
the music video will be similar for whichever song I choose by
him. As most of his songs revolve around stories about things
that have happened to him in his life, I would like to essentially
use his lyrics as a script and build the video out from there. I
think it would be interesting if the music video was made from
one long tracking shot of a central character who would be
acting out what is being said on screen, but to keep the video
quick (and also to allow for mistakes) the video would jump cut
through the shot. This idea is mainly inspired by the music
video for “Oxford Comma” by Vampire Weekend.

8. “OXFORD COMMA” BY VAMPIRE WEEKEND
This music video tells a story with the
band members playing the
different characters. The music
video is made up of just one long
shot that tracks sideways from the
left to right, with the camera’s
progress from the left side of the
set to the right representing the
time passing. This music video (as
well as the characters, stories and
imagery of Jens Lekman’s music)
will be a template for me to use as
an inspiration for when I make my
video, the big difference being
that I will probably lose the one-
shot approach to allow myself to
film in different locations (as Jens
Lekman’s songs frequently jump
from situation to situation), but
will probably keep the idea of the
track left as a way of showing time
passing.