Music Video Research

We looked at a selection of music videos to look at the types of locations which a music video is shot at. To get some information and an idea of what locations make a good music video.

Firstly I looked at a video by Paramore, the artist we have chosen to create a music video of one of their songs. I looked at the video ‘Emergency’ which is located in a derelict building, and the video is mainly performance based, as are a lot of rock genre videos. The video has a variety of shots located inside and outside of the derelict building. This type of location seems to suite this type of music and fits to the videos story line. We have decided to include this aspect of location to our music video, as it seems to fit well with our chosen song and the style of music which paramore create.

I also analysed the music video by Avril Lavigne ‘ My happy ending’ which has some tracking shots of Avril on abandoned streets, and it cuts to footage of what the song is about, which we wanted too include into our video, so that it isn’t just a performance based video. Some of the video is also shot in an empty movie theatre, which goes well with the song. We liked the idea of using locations that were empty and abandoned to suit the theme of our chosen song.

I also looked at a video by Evanescence ‘Everybody’s Fool’. I looked at this video as some of the performance based part of the video is filmed on a rooftop looking out on the rest of the city. We thought this would be an interesting aspect to add to our video. We plan to film some of our video on a rooftop in Manchester to get a bird’s eye view of Manchester and set the atmosphere of our video, and also be a good location to film at.

Main Idea For Music Video

After much thought we have come up with an idea and storyline for the video. We have decided to make the video with a parallel between the performance aspect and the storyline, which interlinks slightly with the lyrics of the song, we don't want to be too literal with the images and the lyrics so we aim to just throw in subtle hints throughout the filming.

The storyline aspect of the video is of an upset celebrity, dressed up walking around the streets of Manchester, ending up in a derelict building as she tries to escape from the press. We intend to show that she's trying to escape through extras in the video with cameras. We have also thought about costume and props to show that she's upset. Eventually she will end up in a derelict building on the outskirts of Manchester where she will be free from it all.

We have two ideas, as to where we can film the performance side of the video, firstly a rooftop in the center of Manchester, this would be good for performance because of the view of the city that can be seen from that height, and also the generic conventions of this type of setting. Through analysis of many music video's in this rock/pop genre we have discovered that rooftops as a setting are used very often, in video's such as Avril Lavigne's 'My Happy Ending' and the Lostprophets 'Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja'.
The second possible performance setting is in the derelict building that we will film the celebrity in, but in a different part of it.
When we have visited all of these places and taken photographs of them all we will make a decision on which one will be best to use as a performance location.

Analysis of Misery Business by Paramore

As we are doing the song Fences by Paramore as our chosen video, we have decided to do an anaylis of Misery Business by Paramore.

This is to get an idea of shots and effects that Paramore use in their own videos.

The link below is the video of Misery Business.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQnwQ6JtySc

The video uses a lot of long shots and medium shots in the performance sections which I think works to effect and would look good in our own video. The video has fast paced shots that change to the beat and none of the shots go on for more than 1 second. This will be good to use in our own video as Fences is also a very fast paced song.

Misery Business uses a lot of different camera angles to create a variety of shots. An interesting camera angle was the dutch slanted angle which was used in the performance section. There was good use of tracking and zoom in the storyline section which I would like to use in our own video.

The mise en scene in the video is realistic and the set of a high school works well.

There is a variety of effects in the video such as the change from colour to monochrome in a flash like way. There are also sections where Hayley Williams, the performer, holds onto the camera and shakes it whilst singing into it which works well. She also wipes the camera at one point as if it is someones face which works well as you see what is happening from the characters view which is similar to an over the shoulder shot but more intrusive.

The following images are some shots from Misery Business by Paramore.

I like these shots as they show a variation as to what the video involves.

Introduction to A2 Music Video Coursework

For this piece of coursework we have decided as group to create the video for the song 'Fences' by Paramore. The song is quite upbeat, so it should be a great opourtunity to create a fast paced video. We are currently in the process of planning the concept of the video, costumes, locations and lighting. We are also teaming this planning with researching music videos of the same genre and analysing them for generic conventions.