Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Applying Goodwin's 6 points in my video

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band):
  • everyday experiences
  • performance element
  • Indie/pop acoustic guitars/ elecrto-acoustic
  • Dress sense- mainstream with individual touches
There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting):
  • "everyday I seem to turn around, I'm on my back again" - the front man of the band rolls over in bed to switch off the alarm clock, then rolls onto his back again. A literal perception of the imagery in the lyrics. If someone is described as being on their back, it usually refers to them being in some kind of helpless situation, or stuck in a rut.
  • "looking outside and the sky is black" - looking out of the window onto landscape, dull sky, rows of houses- council houses.
  • "this room I'm living in" - transitional camera spin in a circle, camera positioned centrally to the room, spun so the shot of the room/walls blur together
  • "if these four walls keep closing in"- transitional shots, zooms from medium shot of singer to extreme close-up so the shot is now plain/obscured. Repeat from all 4 sides of the singer to imitate the room getting smaller
  • "we're wasting time and space"- time lapse film of alarm clock, seeing the hands move through many minutes and hours in a few seconds of video
  • "As Groundhog Day comes round"- interpreted as a reference to the film of the name "Groundhog Day" in which the protagonist gets stuck waking up in the same day over and over again. Here I will repeat footage from the beginning up to the current point with the speed increased. This should give the impression that his is a monotonous, repetitive daily routine that we are fast forwarding through.


There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).


  • The music will intrinsically link with the video as the shots will be edited to change on the beat of the song


The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).


  • I will use lots of shots of the artists in the video including close-ups, used to show the singers lip syncing, the emphasise the lyrics/words they are singing. This would satisfy the record label as the audience would get to see what the members of the band look like very quickly and will gain an impression of what the personality of the band is like from the video
  • Band image- reoccurring  




There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.


  • I am considering including a shot of the singer picking up a photo frame containing a picture of a girl in the first half of the video, therefore the audience will assume this is the person is dreaming of better days with- "cause I dream of better days with you now". However this will not appear voyeuristic, but create a sense of longing by the male singer/protagonist.


There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).


  • "As groundhog day goes round" - I interpret this lyric to be referencing the film Groundhog Day, in which the protagonist gets stuck in a loop, waking up and living the same day over and over again. I believe the lyrics is referring to that meaning of the phrase as the term, Groundhog Day has to many people, come to represent the act of going through a phenomenon over and over until it can be spiritually transcended, instead of the literal meaning of the day of celebration on 2nd February.