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.

First scheduled film-cancelled

I arranged with the people playing the band members in my music video to film on Sunday, however, due to snowy and icy weather conditions I could not transport the drum kit and other equipment to my filming location, so I had to cancel my filming and I will rearrange it for another date.

Shot list

I have compiled a preliminary list of shots I need to take on my filming day, which I have rescheduled for Sunday 10th February.


Shot list (chronological order):

• Close-up of an alarm clock on a bedside table, bells ring/alarm goes off- music starts
• Zoom-out top down shot of male (lead singer) waking up to the alarm
• Mid-shot of guy rolling over to switch off alarm
• Medium close-up of male rolling over towards the camera, ending looking directly towards the lens
• Birdseye/ top down  shot of him rolling over onto his back again. Lip syncing "Everyday I seem to turn around, I'm on my back again"
• 360 degree panning shot I know there's something better than this room I'm living in"
• Long shot of him sitting up in bed and getting up
• medium shot of him sit on edge of bed rub eyes/face brush hair flat
• Long shot of him stand up from bed
• Over shoulder shot of him standing looking out of the window
• Diagonal shot him at window- seeing bleak sky lip sync "looking outside and the sky is black, I know a better place"
•  Mid-shot. Fast zoom in to close-up (until just see his t-shirt). Repeat from 3 other sides of him
• Close-up of clock- time lapse photography
• Long shot on upper landing of man walking out of bedroom towards the camera
• Extreme close-up floor level shot of person walking past camera framing their feet.
• Low angle long shot of male at top of first flight stairs and walking down, camera at bottom of flight- sits on stairs
• Mid-long shot of male walking sideways past static camera
• Mid-close-up lead singer front on
• Close-up over shoulder shot in the mirror of him brushing his teeth
• Mid-shot of him washing
• Mirror shot of him shaving
• Long shots of band playing in sync together- guitarist and singer, front-centre drummer and bass either side slightly back
• Mid-shot of guitarist on his own
• Extreme close-ups of guitarists right hand strumming strings
• Extreme close-ups of guitarists left hand pressing/ moving on fretboard (guitar solo)
• Extreme close-ups of bassist (right-hand) plucking strings
• Extreme close-ups of bassist (left-hand) pressing strings on fretboard
• mid-shot of drummer
• close-up of drumstick hitting drum
• Extreme close-up of drumroll on cymbals
• Close-up of vocalist- lip syncing
• Close-up of drummer lip syncing "Woooh" for instrumental
• Long shot of band members lined up in front of wall- stills
• long shot as before- 2 of the people swap places. repeat with them swapping places and changing direction they are facing in.
• Long shot of band 'procession' past camera
• still long shots of members wearing hats. stop motion of them changed hats along the line

Possible Costumes

As the genre of my band is indie music I will try and style my band members accordingly for the music video. Clothes such as check shirts, and polo shirts.

To match the genre of music I would expect the band members to wear chinos and skinny jeans to fit in with the styling of bands in the same genre like The Kooks.

Props-extended camera/tripod mount

In order to create the effect of the bedroom/walls blurring together to use as a transitional shot, I would need to loosen the tripod pan screw to allow the camera to spin quickly enough to create motion blur. However, spinning the camera on the tripod would create a 360° pan as the camera would spin centred on the axis of rotation. The effect I wanted was for the camera to spin in a large circle as if it was tracking around the room, to do this I created a makeshift extended camera mount so the camera would spin further away from the axis. I used one tripod and the removable camera mounting plate from another tripod.

Tripod with flat piece of wood clamped where camera would normally go. Camera on the end of the plank to increase pan circle diameter.

The wood held on with spring clamps

Camera screwed to camera mounting plate from another camera tripod and secured with elastic band and tape.

Props list

• Drum kit
• Bass guitar
• guitar leads
• Amplifier
• microphone
• step-ladder
• tripod extension mount
• tripod x2
• camera, charger
• stills camera
• alarm clock
• acoustic/ electric guitar
• costumes- pajamas, dressing gown/ lounging clothes for lead singer/guitarist. Nicer, fashionable, more indie clothing for later in the song after 'changing his ways'
• band members-casual clothing
• lighting
• laptop with lyrics and shotlists
• mp3 player/ phone with song on
• speakers
• drumsticks
• storyboards
• shot list
• copies of lyrics

Storyboard

0:00-0:05 close-up, alarm sound, alarm starts with first guitar strum

0:05 mid-shot, top down, zoom out, alarm sound, person waking to sound of alarm

0:08 mid-close-up, reaching to switch off alarm

0:11 sprawled- lying sideways

0:13 top down, zoom out, "Everyday I seem to turn around, I'm on my back again", rolls over during bass run

0:20 pan 360 degrees, "I know there's something better than this room I'm living in"

0:26 Looks out of window, "looking outside and the sky is black, I know a better place"

0:33 mid shot, fast zoom in, repeated from different sides of person, "cause if these four walls keep closing in"

0:35 close-up, time-lapse, "we're wasting time and space"

Long shot walking out of bedroom onto landing

Walks into the bathroom

Looking in the mirror, washing, brushing teeth

Low angle shot, walking down the stairs 

low shot show person walk horizontally past the camera

Lip syncing lyrics 

Medium shot of guitar playing, lip syncing, close-ups of lip syncing

Location Shots

I chose to go and take some pictures of a possible location for my video. I had already established that I wanted part or all of the video to be set in a young guys house. The look that I wanted to create was a student esque, messy, basic looking house that would match the stereotype that I am trying to create to match the drab lifestyle described in the lyrics of the song. The picture below shows the bedroom that the scene in which the singer wakes up will be filmed in.

Since there is quite a heavy reference in the lyrics to looking outside and the grey skies etc. I wanted to have the window as a key part of the video- this window suited what I wanted as you could see the sky clearly from the window and the was a good view of houses/ buildings to use as a skyline.

Part of my video will be showing the singer's daily routine, so I may use shots in the bathroom of him washing and brushing his teeth and so on.

I want to incorporate the staircase into the video, with the singing walking down them after the bedroom scene.

I also want to use shots of the band members playing at the top of the stairs/ on the landing playing their instruments- each person on a different floor shot from a low angle.

The second half of the video could take place in the living room of his house as I could frame the whole band together in this room. I would remove some of the furniture and ornaments from the walls to make the setting look more like a basic bedsit.

Pitch for my music video

After hearing my song a few times and analysing the lyrics I started to interpret how I imagined the video to be and started to piece together some ideas that I could use as the basis for the music video.


The lyrics suggest that the singer/bands live a boring, monotonous and repetitive lifestyle in a drab town where nothing interesting happens. The chorus suggests that there is someone/ people in his life that he wants to improve his relationship with and change his ways of life. I am going to split the song into two main sections, the first being based around the lead singer's daily routine, and the second the band performing in the front room of the house.


The first part will only show the singer/guitarist and will show him waking up in the morning to the sound of his alarm and looking pretty apathetic. There will be some shots using lip syncing and shots picturing imagery used in the lyrics. To outline his repetitive lifestyle I'll include shots of him undertaking everyday tasks/ his daily routine- waking up disgruntled to a noisy alarm clock, getting up and looking out of the window at where he lives, going into the bathroom, having a wash, brushing teeth and turning on the shower.


I will experiment with unique camera transitions such as 360 degree camera spins to show the whole room and to blur the walls into one. 


Another transition I will use is four zooms from all sides of the singer to represent the four walls closing in.


I will repeat the footage used at the start of the video when the lyrics 'groundhog day goes round' are sung as this is an intertextual reference to the film of the same name in which the protagonist keeps waking up in the same day.


The singer/guitarist will be singing and playing guitar alone during the second verse, when the second chorus comes in the rest of the band appears behind the lead singer/guitarist to signify the change in 'his ways'.


During the instrumental section I will create a pixilation/ human stop motion using the band members and get them to change hats or items of clothing and change positions in a line etc.


Also to connote a dull boring lifestyle of the band, in the first section of the video that I mentioned previously, I may apply a black and white and/or grainy filter, this will juxtapose with the brighter footage that appears later on with the other band members.

Summary of existing video research

What conventions of videos in the indie rock genre am I going to use during my video:

• Pixilation (stop motion with humans as the subject)
• Band members messing around- often during the instrumental
• Shots of the city skyline
• Lots of close-ups of the singers mouth, guitar strums, bass plucks and cymbal hits
• Grainy filters
• Black and white filter or desaturated colours
• Mixture of performance element and narrative element