Question 1 Draft (Incomplete)

General stuff about video

My video was based around conceptual ideas, having large amounts of symbolism which either related directly to the song lyric in verbatim (for example, walking past the fatburger, playing the song on the phone) or to what the lyric means.  Having symbolism in the video allowed for the viewer to piece together the story and emotions that the song was trying to convey.

My case study of Paradise by Coldplay is a heavy influence on the overall aesthetic of this video, using a costume to mask who the protagonist of the video is and adding the underlying theme of isolation and being out of place. This case study is mostly a narration, not having too many signs of overt symbolism which, while it is effective, is not the type of video I wanted to produce. Having conceptual and surreal elements which tell a story allows the viewer to interpret different things in a way which they see fit, rather than the video having one set meaning. A further inspiration to the video concept was the film Donnie Darko in which there are heavy themes of obscurity and

Narratively speaking, the structure of my music video is non-linear. The scenes show the protagonist in different places with no real indication of how or when he got there. This works to add to the theme of the video. However, a clear storyline is not necessarily needed as the viewer focuses more on the protagonist and how much he stands out rather than the scenery. 

Postmodernism

My video was very experimental and this matched the genre of the song as it is quite an alternative genre that features many different aspects of music rather than simply falling under the category of ‘rap’. This links with Goodwin’s idea of genre related style and also shows continuity between our video and chosen song. 

Camera

There are a variety of shots used in my music video. In the opening chorus there is a mix of shots ranging from medium shots to cutaways. Using this range of shots allows for the viewer to be immersed in what is going on and to also straight away have questions for what is happening.

The camera is kept stationary throughout the whole video. Having the camera move in a shot to either track the artist or show surroundings would break the storyline.This challenges conventions of the genre of my chosen song as usually in rap the camera moves to track the artist, either as they're lip syncing or moving through their surroundings in the shot.

Editing

During the editing process I made sure to line the lyrics up with the different shots and visuals we had filmed. The first chorus of the song is accompanied with shots that are edited to match the beat of the song. It's edited to create a flipped version that you first see, this is done to give the viewer something


I made sure that the each shot was cut to match up with the lyrics said. For example, at 0:33 the shot is edited to match up with the sound of a door closing which is included in the song.