Planning - Analysis of Influential Music Videos

During the planning stage we have been looking at many music videos from female vocalists similar to the original artist of our song choice. We have blogged about some of these before, but here is my shortlist of videos that have influenced us, along with explanations of what kind of ideas we have taken away from them.

First of all, we talked about incorporating a forest/woodland setting very early on in our planning. I went on to research videos from female artists that have used this kind of setting before, and shared my findings with my group via Facebook, which included videos from Kate Bush, Leona Lewis, and iamamiwhoami.

But my favourite that I found has to be Don't Leave Home by Dido. The cuts in this video are fast-paced, which contrast with the song's slower tempo. This works well in giving the video a quick and snappy feel which flows from one scene to the next. In our video, we will want to replicate this kind of editing, including the use of slow motion and jump cuts. The mise-en-scène is of a high standard for all four videos, but particularly that of Don't Leave Home as you can tell that a lot of thought and planning has been put into it. The shadowy lighting, costume, and props such as candles, are what we hope to replicate for our own video.  In our music video, we will definitely be attempting to show a contrast between night and day, which can be seen in three out of these four videos. All four of the performers can also be seen wearing some form of dress, which we are considering for Poppy's costume. Below, you can watch a video compilation I edited together outlining these, as well as other, features that I found particularly effective.



As part of the mise-en-scène and artist image, we have also been looking at make-up inspired by artist Bat for Lashes, particularly from her video Daniel...

Poppy's make-up experimentation

We will be adapting this by possibly using food colouring (although we're worried this might not come off easily) or watercolour paint (we'll have to make sure to apply it carefully). We'll be sure to use mid-shots, as shown in the original music video, as well as close-ups, for the scenes with this style of make-up. Poppy has additionally been experimenting with her own make-up, as shown on the right.

Finally, as we blogged about before, we were inspired by the music video for Imogen Heap's Lifeline (as well as Lovesick by Emily Osment, although this style looks much harder to reproduce and heavily edited). In addition to the concept of projecting footage onto the artist, we would again use a mixture of mid-shots and close-ups, as any wider angles wouldn't be as effective.

A few sequences from the Lovesick music video:

 

 

Finally, Alex Winston's music video for Velvet Elvis was one that stuck out for me ever since the beginning of my research. The editing in it is fast-paced, in-time with the track, and really exciting to watch. During the chorus (which portrays Andrew Goodwin's theory through repetitive elements), the speed of Winston's body movements are obviously edited in places, with her lip-syncing not being affected at all. This inspired me into suggesting the following idea to our group: we take our chosen music track, slow it down by half, and then film a base track of lip-syncing to it. Afterwards, once we edit, we will take the footage and double the speed up, meaning the lip syncing will be in time with the track whilst the performer's movements will be abnormally fast! I think this could be a really interested effect, and so I briefly tested it out by recording myself lip-syncing and following the aforementioned steps (unfortunately, there is no way that I will allow this video to see the light of day, sorry!) The result was pretty creepy, especially at one point where I suddenly got up out of my chair. I feel this editing effect will be fitting for our music video and we plan on implementing this in the setting of Abney Park's chapel.