Haim - "Don't Save Me"

Haim are a girl group from Los Angeles, California, which experiment with elements from the genres of pop, indie pop, folk and R&B. The trio are sisters, who grew up listening to the 1970s classic rock and Americana records of their music-loving parents. As a result of this, they decided to form a band when the youngest sibling finished high school and have gone on to achieve great success, being named the BBC Sound of 2013. Their music videos are known for having their own self-choreographed dance routines, however the videos are not performance based. Sure, they may have the odd shot of the girls dancing or playing an instrument or singing, but there is always a storyline weaved between these clips.

Don't Save Me: 

http://vevo.ly/RUa5Km

The video begins with a darkened screen and the outline of an athlete, spinning a basketball around on the tip of his finger. At the very beginning of the clip, there is no music playing. However, as the music begins the lights behind the athlete flicker on and off, to the beat of the music. The opening beats of the music establish the theme of the entire video, group and song: upbeat. Although the song is of an upbeat tempo, the colouring of the video throughout is quite dark and dingy, juxtaposing the music and the visual imagery. The lyrics seem to fit more with the "dark" colouring, as they are quite melancholic - "Take me back, take me back to the way that I was before. Hungry for what was to come, now I'm longing for the way I was", and, "All my life I wasn't trying to get on a high way, I was wondering which way to go. Spending all of my damn time, leaving all the weight behind" being examples of this. 

The below long shot of the trio is quite dark, and none of the girls look particularly happy. I believe this video, and indeed the song, has quite a "feminist" feel to it. What I mean by that is it is about the females of the video overcoming the patriarchal society that we live in and showing males that females are their equals. So, to start the vide off with this poorly lit shot presents the idea that women are oppressed and the trio are unhappy about this apparent fact. The girls have minimal make-up on, and are wearing respectable clothes that express each sister's individual personality.

The girls are then shown entering a gymnasium, where they are met by a team of tall, male basketball players. The idea that men are better than women, especially at sports, has been around for centuries and the band challenges this common thought as the begin to engage in a game of basketball with these boys. Throughout the basketball scenes, the lights in the room flicker to show the rising tension and to signify the change that is about to occur. 

Just like the basketball player in the beginning of the video, the girls are illuminated by lights surrounding them, showing that women are just the same as men as the same lighting effect that happened to the previous male happened to them. It can also be a signifier that they shall "win" in this metaphorical game of basketball and conquer the vicious stereotype. 

The camera then cuts between shots of the girls performing their song and them playing basketball with the men. The video is not necessarily narrative driven as there is an equal balance of performance and storyline shots, however I believe the narrative of the video is prominent and continuously stands out to the viewer as they watch this video. 

This medium long shot shows the victory shot by one of the girls, meaning they have succeeded in their quest to prove that women are equal to men. Below is a medium shot of the girls celebrating their victory, and allowing the audience to realise that what society so commonly dictates is not necessarily the truth. 

This medium close up shot is particularly significant as the scene that the music video began with is hijacked by one of the girls, stealing the ball away from the skilled basketball played to further encourage the idea that women can do the same things as men on an equal level. 

The lower angled medium shot above is what the video ends with, with each of the girls having satisfied expressions on their faces as the lead singer tosses the basketball between her hands, to show the change of power and abolishment of the previous stereotype about women. The low angle of the shot gives the idea that the girls are up on a pedestal and are therefore superior to men, or even the audience, as they have proved themselves worthy of recognition. 

I believe this video would mainly appeal to a female audience as the video and the song are empowering, telling the audience that women do not need men to succeed in life, and that the false idea that is said about women being the weaker sex is completely untrue. The thing I don't like about this video is the lack of background, however I like the effects given by the flashing lights. This video also heavily includes performance scenes, something which I am not too fond of, but I can appreciate, as well as the audience, the girls' ability to play instruments and can recognise their talent. On a whole, I'd say I'd rate this video a 7 out of 10. 

Imagine Dragons - "It's Time"

Imagine Dragons are an American alternative rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada. They gained exposure after the release of their debut studio album, Night Visions, in September 2012. Billboard named they "The Breakthrough Band of 2013", and Rolling Stone called their single "Radioactive" "the biggest rock hit of the year." The band members are Dan Reynolds, Ben McKee, Wayne "Wing" Sermon and Dan Platzman. The band plays guitar, bass, keyboards, cello, viola, drums and piano; they take all of these instruments on tour with them.

It's Time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sENM2wA_FTg

The video for Imagine Dragons' hit song "It's Time" begins with a medium close up shot of the band looking down at the floor, wearing very "rural" coloured clothing. The contrast of the video seems to be very high, however the exposure and possibly the brightness of the video settings seems to be very low. This creates a dark atmosphere, juxtaposing the upbeat tempo and lyrics of the band's song. The grey clouds around the band as they walk symbolise the hardships that we must face in life, as when you are seen as miserable you are said to have a "dark cloud following you". By having this imagery, the band then allow their audience, from all ages and backgrounds, to somehow relate to the video as everyone has hard times that they must face, and sometimes this can be extremely overwhelming for some.

This long shot of the band allows the audience to see the setting of an empty mess of rubble, once again repeating the imagery of hard times that people experience as your world can feel as if it is crumbling down and can leave you shattered emotionally. Having the band seeming to be searching for something amongst the rubble gives the idea that they are possibly going through a rite of passage, and from this the audience can once again interpret their own meaning. The overall message of the song is that you can overcome anything in life, and that as you grow up and follow your heart you can become the person you want to be. The journey that the band go on throughout the video, despite the gloomy atmosphere created from the video, represents this idea and because of this the idea is present throughout the audience's minds as they watch on.

The camera angles mostly used in this video are long shots, extreme long shots and medium close ups. By using only these types of shots the audience feel as if they are either part of the journey with the band, or they are merely watching and admiring from the sidelines. However they feel, they know they are part of the video and can relate to the song's meaning and its lyrics.

The above extreme long shot has echoes of war pictures, depicting soldiers going off to battle. The clouds and the darkness in your life can sometimes be referred to as the "enemy", and you "battle" with your demons to get over this. This shot is definitely an "eye-opener" for the audience, and they can quickly grasp the meaning of the video if they weren't previously aware or entirely sure of its message. 

The video ends with an intense scene. The clouds and darkness surrounds the lead singer as he and his fellow bandmates try their hardest to run away from them, but the singer has no choice but to let the darkness overcome him. The flicker of white in the background of this scene suggests that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and although the character feels that he is at his darkest point at the moment he will prevail and everything will be better in the end. 

The series of screenshots below show the journey that the protagonist goes through, travelling from the dark world of depression and sadness to the idyllic and serene image of peace - this can also be seen as bettering yourself, leaving the pits of Hell to experience the greatness of Heaven. 

I believe that anybody who watches this video can achieve a sense of self worth and importance, as if you are feeling particularly low you can watch this video and believe that everything that is bad in your life can be resolved. I love how despite the happy music playing over the top of this video, it does not take the attention away from the serious message to the audience that everything will be okay in the end, you just have to embrace the storm that comes before the calm. As the famous saying goes, it gets worse before it gets better and I truly believe that this is the main focus in this particular video. 

Like the Bastille video I have previously analysed, this music video has very few moments of the main singer lip syncing, and whenever rare moments like these occur he is never looking at the camera; it is as if he is trying to make sense of the situation and talking aloud to himself. The video is therefore mainly narrative driven and with songs with such powerful meanings and messages such as this that is something that must be done, as you cannot have a beautifully inspiring song with a boring, mundane performance based music video. The audience would not gain the same emotionally connection as they would do with a video such as this. 

I love the landscape elements used in this video, and believe that I would like to incorporate backdrops such as these (perhaps without so much debris) into my own music video. 

Music video research

I'm currently in the process of filming people's responses and opinions towards some music videos that I have chosen, which are all under the musical category of "alternative-pop". This is the genre which I hope to experiment with, and to create an accurate idea of what to do and what not to do I must interact with my target audience and discover what they like and dislike about each video. Beforehand, I will analyse each music video personally, and will draw my final conclusions after filming my audience's reactions.

My personal opinion

Generally, I don't like music videos that are performance based. I'd much rather watch a narrative-driven video, as I believe they have more substance, can relate to the band's target audience and overall can help me remember bands and their songs. Most bands that I listen to have music videos that break the stereotypical norms of what a music video should include. For example, popular acts such as Rihanna have videos where they stand in provocative (minimal) clothing and lip-sync to the camera, whereas one of my favourite bands Two Door Cinema Club may have occassions where they lip-sync to the camera, but there is a whole other scenario happening around them - the focus is not always on the band.

Two Door Cinema Club's music video for their single "Something Good Can Work" is shot in a very interesting way, as the camera angles vary and the choice of location changes. Also, most of the editing is done to the beat of the song. The band perform for certain parts of the video, however the entire piece is not performance based - this is something I love about it.

http://www.vevo.com/watch/two-door-cinema-club/something-good-can-work/FR7A51000002#/watch/two-door-cinema-club/something-good-can-work/FR7A51000002

This is one of the first videos the band ever created to promote their music, which is made obvious by the low quality of the actual footage when compared to the high quality videos produced by the band today.

For my music video, I will be using my Canon camera, meaning the quality should be extremely high and I can experiment using the lens settings for focus shots. I also hope to buy accessories for my camera, to ensure that the filming process of my video is as realistic as possible. I will also have someone filming the "behind the scenes" footage, and will conduct several interviews with those involved with the making of my project.

Bastille - "Pompeii"

Bastille (stylised as BΔSTILLE) are an English alternative/indie rock band from London. First formed in 2010, Bastille began as a solo project by singer-songwriter Dan Smith, who later decided to form a band. The four-piece consists of members Dan Smith, Chris "Woody" Wood, Will Farquarson and Kyle Simmons. The name of the band derives from Bastille Day - an event celebrate on Dan Smith's birthday, July 14th. In December of 2010, the major record label EMI Music announced that they had offered Bastille a record contract with Virgin Records. 

Pompeii:

http://vevo.ly/soqS13

Above is the music video for Bastille's biggest success so far: Pompeii. 

The narrative of the video (in a nutshell) is the lead singer of the band, Dan, and the the protagonist of the video, is in an abandoned city and seems to be seeking refuge. He encounters several people along his journey, all with black eyes - this symbolises their innocence being taken away from them in some way, shape or form. Dan then begins to run away from these characters, denying the truth that this has happened to the world he lives in as he wanted to remain innocent and retain his idealistic view of the world. At the end of the video, he must accept the injustice and imperfection of his life now, and he turns to the camera, joining the other characters in having black eyes.


The video begins with the back of Dan's head, looking out onto the city that he once knew and still loves. The band's name and title of the song is then placed onto the screen in an acrostic style, something the band is famous for doing as they do it on all of their single releases. The "a" of Bastille is a triangle, a branding technique that the brand uses throughout their CD covers and merchandise. The typography is very simple, being in capital letters and in white to demonstrate that the band are focusing solely on the music they produce and are not trying to sell their image to their fans. This is something that is a common factor in other bands of Bastille's "alternative electronica" genre.

The camera then cuts to a close-up shot of Dan, looking sorrowfully out onto the city. As the audience can now see Dan's facial expression, they can see exactly how he feels but are still questioning the situation as they do not know what exactly is going on. The colouring of the video throughout is very bleak, having a "grey wash" effect, the saturation of the video being decreased and the contrast slightly heightened. This effect reflects the tone of the song, as the lyrics are about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and how it destroyed the city of Pompeii - this being a metaphor for Dan's sense of realisation that the innocent world that he once knew has been stripped of everything that was once pure.

The video then continues with a series of long shots to establish the location, and allow the audience to see the isolated conditions which Dan has been confined to. 

The darkness of this shot allows the audience to see that Dan is hiding in the shadows, not wanting to be found by anybody because he believes that the world outside will do him no good and he is the only remaining "good" person. The tattered mattress and old brick walls reinforce the idea the world around Dan is crumbling before his eyes. 

The above long shots help set the scene for the video, as no signs of life are present around the abandoned town. The gloomy lighting as well as the low angles of most of these shots also help set the scene. I hope to include long shots such as these in my own music video, as I plan to use a lot of landscape shots. 

As the camera follows Dan cycling through the city alone, the once steady handling of the camera turns quite shaky as if to suggest that someone is following Dan, or perhaps reflecting Dan's terrified mood. This style of camera handling is continued throughout the rest of the video.

Dan is then finally confronted with those who have lost their innocence: 

The editing of the eyes makes it obvious that the people above are totally different to Dan, allowing the audience to see what Dan has been running from all this time. Whenever he sees a person with blackened eyes, he clumsily runs away from them and heads towards another part of town to get as far away as possible. The people who have lost their innocence as seen in relatively normal, "everyday", casual clothes, whereas Dan is dressed in all black. Having the protagonist in all black could foreshadow the end of the video, where Dan finally succumbs to the injustice. The medium close up shots used to present the characters who have lost their innocence allows the audience to feel as if they are the ones standing right in front of them, not Dan, and this allows the audience to feel as if they are a part of the video and ultimately encourages them to continue watching the video - this will then force the audience to listen to the song and acknowledge Bastille's music. 

He notices that his eyes are slowly darkening, and the bleak scenery that was once around Dan changes. It is no longer nighttime, and the bright, rural backdrops which Dan is in allows the audience to compare the now "darkened" Dan to the world that he once knew. 

This particular extreme long shot perfectly demonstrates this perfectly:

This medium close up shot of Dan, looking out into the river (which has connotations of washing away his sins, trying to break free from the darkness) is particularly poignant to me as I believe it expresses everything the character has been feeling throughout the video in a simple gesture. When people are stressed or nervous, as a coping mechanism they grab/massage the back of their neck. By having Dan do this, the audience can then begin to fully comprehend the situation that he is in emotionally.

The video ends with a close up shot of Dan, having the bright background behind him to once again allow the audience to compare his new and old life. His darkened eyes are now fully visible to the audience, and they could not see his entire face when he first began to notice his change. This shot sums up the video, as it incorporates everything Dan was running from and everything he craved. This shot reinforces the idea that the world's innocence is being lost to the audience and they can interpret this message in any way they like, meaning they can apply it to their lives and people from all age ranges can watch this video and appreciate its message.

I really liked this video (and I absolutely love Bastille). I think it is original, and is not completely focused on having the band's frontman singing. It does occasionally have clips of Dan singing, but he is never singing to the camera - it is as if he is trying to make sense of the situation to himself and he is simply talking aloud. The video is mainly narrative driven, and since I want my video to be fully narrative driven I can gain inspiration from this video and can also appreciate the storyline and ideas behind it. 

I also found this really cool video, where the band talk about creating the song and the video, and you get to see the "behind the scenes" action. The link is below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VALSmAUosK8

A little bit of research

Since deciding that I would definitely like to create a music video for this course, I thought it would be best to research the evolution of music videos in order to become familiar with both modern and older types of videos.

Music videos are often called promotion videos or simply promos, due to the fact that they are usually promotional devices. In the 1980s, the term "rock video" was first used to describe this particular form of entertainment, but the term is not used as regularly in modern day society. The earliest music videos were filmed in the mid 1950s. However, as early as the 1920s, films by animators were accompanied by musical scores, labelled "visual music". The early animated pieces of Walt Disney were built around music. The Warner Brothers cartoons were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner Brothers musical films.

A poignant work in the development of the modern-day idea of a music video was The Beatles' first major motion picture, A Hard Day's Night in 1964, directed by Richard Lester. The musical segments in this film arguably establish the basic visual vocabulary of today's music videos, influencing a vast number of contemporary musicians, and countless subsequent pop and rock group music videos. The Beatles took the genre to new levels with their groundbreaking films for Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane, made in early 1967, which utilised techniques borrowed from underground and avant garde film - things such as reversed film effects, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and rhythmic editing. Created at the peak of the psychedelic music period, these two landmark films are amongst the very first purpose-made concept videos that attempt to "illustrate" the song in an artful manner, rather than just creating a film of an idealised performance.

The key innovation in the development of the modern music video was video recording and editing processes, along with the development of a number of related effects. The advent of high-quality colour videotape records and portable video cameras coincided with the DIY ethos of the New Wave era and this enabled many pop acts to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to the relatively high costs of using film. By the mid-1980s, releasing a music video to accompany a new single had become standard. Acts like The Jacksons sought to gain a commerical edge by creating lavish music videos with million dollar budgets; most notable with the video for Can You Feel It.

In the UK, the important of the television show Top of the Pops to promote a single created an environment of innovation and competition amongst bands and record labels as the show's producers placed strict limits on the number of videos they would show - therefore a good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see the video again the following week. Queen's iconic Bohemian Rhapsody also started a whole new era for using music videos as promotional pieces. In 1981, MTV was launched, and the first video aired was The Buggles' song Video Killed The Radio Star. The American television channel has helped thousands of artists be discovered and showcased to the world over the last thirty years.

Nowadays, there are a lot of special effects used in music videos, and multiple filming styles are used to accompany singles that help reflect the artist's image, the messages conveyed in their songs, and to help identify the artist's musical genre.

I have discovered that music videos have greatly helped artists get discovered, sell records and even become known online, with video sites such as YouTube and Vevo showcasing talent all of the time, giving people easy access to music they love and potential new bands their chance to shine. I have watched all of the videos addressed above and have noticed significant changes when comparing them to modern-day videos, the most obvious improvement being the actual quality of the video's footage. I must make sure that my music is of the highest quality, to ensure that it looks realistic and fits with the style of music that I hope to use.

My initial idea

To say I'm excited to do this project would be the biggest understatement of the century. Even the biggest understatement of all time. Since Mr Earl presented the task of creating a music video, with the print products, I have been constantly thinking and trying my best to get the ideas and images from inside my head down onto paper. For my AS course, I created a music video and several montage videos with music as part of my planning, and I have always been passionate about music, so this task is definitely something that I am going to enjoy doing.

When I heard the words "music video", I immediately thought of one of my favourite bands: Bastille - an alternative rock/synthpop band from London.

I've always been fascinated with their music videos and have watched several interviews where the lead singer, Dan Smith, has stated that the band loves film and believes that their passion for it is obvious in their videos. I love the narrative driven style that their videos follow, meaning they break away from the typical perfomance/lip-sync based videos that are swarming the charts nowadays. Each video has its own story, which relates to the lyrics of the single perfectly. Ideally, I would like to use Bastille's song "Things We Lost In The Fire" for my project, as it is one of the songs off the band's debut album that does not have a music video. This means that I will not copy their ideas in any way and the work I produce will be entirely designed by me.

Of course, I cannot focus on Bastille alone, so I have created a list of related acts (not necessarily based on music genre but definitely the style of their music videos):

• Of Monsters And Men
• Foster The People
• Imagine Dragons
• Two Door Cinema Club
• Bombay Bicycle Club
• Florence and the Machine
• Lana Del Rey
• Biffy Clyro
• Fall Out Boy
• Panic! At The Disco
• White Lies
• You Me At Six
• Haim
• Ellie Goulding

I will look at the above artists, their image, their music and their videos in more depth as the course goes on to help create a suitable music video for the genre that Bastille are in. I can't wait to get started!